SEA88LA104 · Cessna 210
Cessna 210 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88LA104
- 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
- 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 210
- 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
- N70SA
- Operator
- Terry D. Whelander · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Fuel system, filter › Contamination
- Fuel system, fuel flow divider/distributor › Contamination
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Reno, NV, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT AND AN ILS APPROACH, A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER OCCURRED AT ABOUT 1200 FEET AGL. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE ONTO ROUGH TERRAIN. DURING LANDING ROLL THE NOSE GEAR SEPARATED FROM THE AIRCRAFT. THE PRIVATE PILOT RECEIVING INSTRUMENT INSTRUCTION FLEW THE AIRCRAFT, WHILE THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) ATTEMPTED A RESTART. NEITHER THE PILOT NOR THE CFI WERE FAMILIAR WITH THE FUEL BOOST PUMP PROCEDURES FOR INFLIGHT ENGINE FAILURES. THE AIRCRAFT TYPE DATA CERTIFICATE REQUIRES A PLACARD ADDRESSING PROCEDURES FOR ENGINE FAILURE; THIS PLACARD WAS ABSENT (THE FUEL BOOST SWITCH WAS LEFT IN THE OFF POSITION.) AIRCRAFT EXAMINATION REVEALED CONTAMINATION IN THE GASCOLATOR AND THE FUEL FLOW DIVIDER. ALSO, A 60% OBSTRUCTION DUE TO CONTAMINANTS WAS PRESENT IN THE FUEL AIR CONTROL UNIT SCREEN. 3 SPARK PLUGS WERE FOULED, 2 DUE TO OIL FOULING, 1 DUE TO CARBON FOULING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88LA104
- Event ID
- 20001213X26076
- Case number
- SEA88LA104
- 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: 093e44da19dfdd8f8fd0e49789679c4627213148e19cbda00ec6036ace3fd6d9; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:05:45.158Z.