ATL89LA028 · Cessna T210M
Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA028
- 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
- N732WC
- Operator
- Gregory A. Hewett · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FLTo Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KY
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD FLOWN A CESSNA 172 TO TAMPA TO PICK UP A CESSNA T210M FOR A FLIGHT TO LOUISVILLE, KY. THE 210 HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY FLOWN TO TAMPA FROM FT. MYERS BY THE OWNER. AFTER A PREFLIGHT IN WHICH THE PILOT SAID HE VISUALLY VERIFIED THAT THE FUEL TANKS WERE FULL, THE PILOT DEPARTED FOR LOUISVILLE. ABOUT 15 MILES SOUTH OF STANDIFORD FIELD, LOUISVILLE, KY, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE PILOT MADE A NIGHT FORCED LANDING IN TREES. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE WRECKAGE. AFTER RECOVERY OF THE WRECKAGE, AN ENGINE RUN WAS COMPLETED AFTER ADDING FUEL TO THE AIRPLANE'S FUEL SYSTEM, THE LAST VERIFIED REFUELING OF THE AIRPLANE WAS AT FT. MYERS ON NOVEMBER 2, 1988 WHEN 16 GALLONS WERE ADDED TO 'TOP' THE TANKS. A CALCULATION OF THE FUEL REQUIRED TO COMPLETE A FLIGHT FROM FT. MYERS TO TAMPA TO LOUISVILLE WAS MADE. THE RESULTS INDICATED THAT 86.3 GALLONS OF FUEL WOULD HAVE BEEN REQUIRED UNDER OPTIMUM CONDITIONS. THE USABLE CAPACITY OF THE AIRPLANE WAS 89 GALLONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA028
- Event ID
- 20001213X27192
- Case number
- ATL89LA028
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1988-11-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1f5b764501d122acc1f8f91db5c265b52a56bb616deed0c7c5e8a168d69e1d8c; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:21:10.477Z.