DEN90FA159 · Cessna P210R
Great Western Aviation Cessna P210R · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Ogden Hinckley Airport (OGD) to 334 · DUTCH JOHN, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90FA159
- 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
- Accident
- 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
- 1 · 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 P210R
- 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
- N6203A
- Operator
- Great Western Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ogden Hinckley Airport (OGD), Ogden, UTTo 334 · DUTCH JOHN, UT
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Overtemperature
- Engine assembly, piston › Burned
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TWO PLTS HAD DEPARTED ON A FLT TO GET TWO REVENUE PASSENGERS. THE LEFT SEAT PLT WAS AT THE CTLS WHEN A LOSS OF ENG POWER OCCURRED. HE MADE A 180 DEG TURN & WAS GLIDING DOWN A CANYON WHEN IT STRUCK AN UNMARKED POWER LINE AT THE MOUTH OF THE CANYON. IMPACT OCCURRED ABOUT 100 TO 200 FT AGL. A POST-ACDNT EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED EVIDENCE OF DETONATION/PREIGNITION & EXCESSIVE HEATING IN THE #1 CLYINDER & SUBSEQUENT FAILURE OF THE #1 PISTON.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE #1 PISTON DUE TO PRE-IGNITION/DETONATION IN THE #1 CYLINDER, AND INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOT (HIS FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE OBSTRUCTION). THE OBSTRUCTION (POWER LINE) WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90FA159
- Event ID
- 20001212X23670
- Case number
- DEN90FA159
- 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: 5cd78b0241cc34c84c057190539a896c060ca4b732b479b9b915f73643478b9e; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:29:21.715Z.