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BFO88FA026 · Cessna 210N

20 Mar 1988 · QUANTICO, VA, United States

Atlantic Aero Cessna 210N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO) to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)

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Event

NTSB case
BFO88FA026
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
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Unknown

Cessna 210N

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
N6401N
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Greensboro, NCTo Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DC
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 · 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
In flight encounter with weather
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
Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
  • Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS ABT 25 MI SOUTH & INBOUND TO DCA WHEN THE PLT RPRTD AN ENCTR WITH SNOWSHWRS WHICH WERE PART OF A COLD FRONT. HE ASKED & WAS CLRD TO DSCND TO 2500 FT SO HE COULD MAINT VMC. RADAR DATA SHOWED, THE ACFT DSCNDD PAST 2500 FT TO 1300 FT. ABT 16 MI SOUTH OF DCA, THE PLT SAID HE WAS REVERSING COURSE TO GET OUT OF THE SNOWSHWRS. HE ASKED & WAS CLRD TO CLIMB ON TOP OF THE WX, BUT (DUE TO TRAFFIC) WAS RESTRICTED TO 5500 FT. THE PLT ASKED TO GO TO THE NEAREST VMC ARPT; HOWEVER, RADIO CONTACT WAS LOST AFTER THE ACFT HAD CLIMBED TO 4600 FT. SUBSEQUENTLY, AN IN-FLT BREAKUP OCCURRED & WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT DSCND FROM THE CLOUDS IN PIECES. THEY SAID THERE WERE STRONG WINDS, SNOW & A LOW OVERCAST WHEN THE ACDNT OCCURRED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE WINGS & STABILIZERS HAD SEPD IN FLT FROM OVERLOAD FAILURE. THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT WAS 1ST CHECKED OUT IN TYPE ACFT ABT 3 MOS EARLIER; SUBSEQUENT FLTS IN TYPE ACFT WERE MADE WITH AN INSTRUCTOR ABOARD. THIS WAS THE PLT'S 1ST FLT IN TYPE ACFT WITHOUT AN INSTRUCTOR ABOARD.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO88FA026
Event ID
20001213X25214
Case number
BFO88FA026
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: 022572b3816858b5ed580d3d78fffe0cd32d7655ba181c07d0e5a36fb65bc780; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:47:15.689Z.