MIA90IA144 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90IA144
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 210L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N732BL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, FLTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTURE, THE PLT RAISED THE LANDING GEAR SELECTOR HANDLE BUT THE GEAR DID NOT FULLY RETRACT. HYDRAULIC FLUID AS ADDED IN AN ATTEMPT TO RETRACT THE GEAR BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. THE FLT PROCEEDED TO THE DESTINATION WHERE HE ATTEMPTED TO LOWER THE GEAR BY THE EMERGENCY METHOD BUT WAS UNABLE. A GEAR UP LANDING WAS PERFORMED. EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED THAT THE PISTON & ROD OF THE LT MAIN LANDING GEAR DOOR ACTUATOR EXITED THE CYLINDER DUE TO INCORRECT INSTALLATON OF THE RETAINING RING. THIS ALLOWED HYDRAULIC FLUID TO LEAK, DEPLETING THE SUPPLY. THE ACTUATOR WAS OVERHAULED 6 HRS & 3 CYCLES EARLIER. 47 SERVICE DIFFICULTY REPORTS & ACCIDENT/INCIDENT REPORTS FROM 1/1/84 TO 6/26/90, INDICATED 8 FAILURES DUE TO A DISLODGED RETAINING RING.
Probable cause
INCORRECT PLACEMENT OF THE RETAINING RING IN THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR DOOR ACTUATOR BY THE MECHANIC RESULTING IN THE LOSS OF HYDRAULIC FLUID. THIS PREVENTED THE GEAR FROM EXTENDING RESULTING IN THE GEAR UP LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90IA144
- Event ID
- 20001212X23477
- Case number
- MIA90IA144
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9a657e49dc5ab39ad796fb57e6024588ad86064552d6fb1b2a6d34749ddfafcb; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:47:57.629Z.