DEN91FA017 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE) to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN91FA017
- 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
- 4 · 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 T210L
- 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
- N732DS
- Operator
- Barrett, Lawrence Collins · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)To John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, CA
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF AT 1215:00, AND THE CONTROLLER ASKED THE PILOT IF HE WOULD BE DEPARTING TO THE SOUTHWEST OR IF HE WOULD BE PROCEEDING TO THE NORTH AND DOWN THE VALLEY. THE PILOT ANSWERED BY GIVING HIS CALL SIGN ONLY. THE CONTROLLER OBSERVED WHAT APPEARED TO BE A NORMAL TAKEOFF, THEN HIS ATTENTION WAS DIVERTED TO OTHER TRAFFIC. WHEN HE SAW THE AIRPLANE AGAIN, IT WAS IN A STEEP LEFT TURN. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED IN A SLIGHTLY INVERTED ATTITUDE ABOUT 1/4 MILE WEST OF THE AIRPORT. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND OF AN AIRFRAME, ENGINE, PROPELLER, OR SYSTEM FAILURE/MALFUNCTION. HIGH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN SURROUNDED THE AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 80 TO 90 LBS OVER ITS MAX GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE TURNING OVER HIGH TERRAIN BESIDE THE AIRPORT, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: EXCESSIVE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE AIRCRAFT, HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, THE TERRAIN, AND LACK OF AVAILABLE ALTITUDE TO RECOVER FROM THE STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN91FA017
- Event ID
- 20001212X24600
- Case number
- DEN91FA017
- 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: 87f6ead2acbd3e09b16fa67a3e6c50b3f3d433399473460df30c64c5b3cb6d71; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:05:18.353Z.