LAX88FA256 · Cessna T210M
Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Catalina Airport (AVX) to Compton Woodley Airport (CPM)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA256
- 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 T210M
- 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
- N732QZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Catalina Airport (AVX), CATALINA, CATo Compton Woodley Airport (CPM), Compton, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, tank › Siphoning
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA T210M CRASHED INTO A RESIDENTIAL ROOF AFTER A LOSS OF ENG PWR, DURING CRUISE DESCENT TO ENTER ARPT TRAFFIC PATTERN. THE RIGHT WING FUEL TANK AND HEADER TANK WERE EMPTY. THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS FOUND WEDGED IN THE RIGHT TANK POSITION. FUEL STAINS WERE VISIBLE ON THE RIGHT WING EMANATING FROM SEVERAL FUEL TANK ACCESS PANELS. THE LEFT WING FUEL TANK HAD SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR THE PILOT TO REACH THE DESTINATION. THE EMERG PROCEDURE OUTLINED IN THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK DIRECTS THE PILOT TO SWITCH TO THE FULLEST TANK. THE PILOT STATED WHEN HE REALIZED HE COULD NOT MAKE THE INTENDED FORCED LANDING AREA HE ATTEMPTED TO LAND IN A SCHOOL YARD. HE THEN OVERSHOT THE SCHOOL YARD. THE ACFT WAS CONFIGURED WITH THE LANDING GEAR DOWN AND THE FLAPS UP. EMERGENCY PROCEDURE RECOMMENDS 30 DEGS OF FLAPS FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO FOLLOW THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES AS OUTLINED IN THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK BY SWITCHING THE FUEL SELECTOR TO THE FULLEST TANK. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS FUEL EXHAUSTION OF THE RIGHT WING TANK AS A RESULT OF FUEL SIPHONING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA256
- Event ID
- 20001213X26264
- Case number
- LAX88FA256
- 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: 6c320a82cc0490d1662f796ed67462d5fb444521feeafa82af1f74de1c7de6cb; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:06:59.796Z.