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CHI88LA053 · Cessna T310R

26 Jan 1988 · Urbana, IL, United States

Cessna T310R · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From Freeman Municipal Airport (SER) to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI88LA053
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
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
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 T310R

Aircraft type
Cessna 310
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
N5120J
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Freeman Municipal Airport (SER), Seymour, INTo Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI), Springfield, IL
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
En route · 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
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
  • Pilot in command › Gear down and locked, not attained

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Urbana, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

AFTER THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE ELECTRICAL FAILURE THE GEAR WAS EXTENDED MANUALLY AND A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WAS MADE. ON ROLL OUT THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT 10 TURNS REMAINED ON THE MANUAL GEAR EXTENSION CRANK TO PLACE THE LANDING GEAR IN THE DOWN AND LOCKED POSITION. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEM COULD BE FOUND TO ATTRIBUTE TO THE LOSS OF ELECTRICAL POWER, OTHER THAN A LOW BATTERY CONDITION AS THE ENTIRE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM FUNCTIONED NORMALLY. POSITION OF THE BATTERY SWITCH AND THE LEFT AND RIGHT ALTERNATOR SWITCHES AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT COULD NOT BE VERIFIED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI88LA053
Event ID
20001213X24875
Case number
CHI88LA053
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: f2358abf103b15878781dc545218d7a1371615df6c6cdaaa168ac2e3656813cb; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:29:26.404Z.