Sky Cab Cessna T210N accident
Cessna T210N · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From 4E0 · Taylor, AZ to 93V
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA252
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N5393A
- Operator
- Sky Cab
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4E0 · Taylor, AZTo 93V
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing · aborted
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS SCHEDULE TO TAKE PSGRS TO A PVT, UNATTENDED, DIRT STRIP NR A WORK SITE. PERMISSION TO LND AT THE STRIP WAS NOT OBTAINED, THO PRIOR PERMISSION WAS REQD. THE STRIP WAS ROUGH; DRAINAGE AT THE APCH END OF RWY 1 HAD ERODED THE GND, MAKING ITS EFFECTIVE LENGTH ABT 2800 FT. ALSO, THERE WAS NO WINDSOCK AT THE STRIP, ITS ELEV WAS 6315 FT & THE DENSITY ALT WAS ABT 9000 FT. A WITNESS RPRTD THE PLT LNDD ON RWY 1, JUST BYD THE MIDPOINT. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE ACFT'S WINGS WERE SEEN TO ROCK BACK & FORTH, THEN THE ACFT BCM AIRBORNE AGAIN. DRG A GO-ARND (ABORTED LNDG), THE ACFT WAS CLIMBING OVR RISING TRRN NORTH OF THE STRIP, WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH A POWER LINE (ABT 90 FT ABV THE RWY ELEV) & CRASHED. THE PLT HAD LNDD WITH A SLGT TAILWIND. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT WAS FND. THE PLT LACKED EXPERIENCE IN LNDG ON SHORT STRIPS WITH HI DENSITY ALT. THE LNDG GEAR & FLAPS WERE FND IN THE RETRACTED PSN. FLAP SETTING OF 10 TO 20 DEG WAS RCMDD FOR SHORT FLD/ROUGH FLD/SOFT FLD/MIN GND RUN TKOF. TKOF DSTC OF 2200 FT WAS REQD TO CLR 50 FT OBSTACLE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ATTAIN THE PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT DURING THE LANDING, HER DELAY IN INITIATING A GO-AROUND (ABORTED LANDING), AND HER FAILURE TO REMAIN CLEAR OF POWER LINES ON RISING TERRAIN DURING THE ABORTED LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, RISING TERRAIN AND THE OBSTACLE (POWER LINE) OFF THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY, THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN SHORT FIELD OPERATIONS AT HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, AND INADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE BY COMPANY/OPERATOR MANAGEMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA252
- Event ID
- 20001212X23726
- Case number
- LAX90FA252
- 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: 63ab296fcdfbbc9d3aef2110759a18918cc9bf6ec30e33d657c25ce410217446; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:05:54.563Z.