CHI89DEE01 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) to Waukegan National Airport (UGN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89DEE01
- 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 210L
- 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
- N5225K
- Operator
- Sweeberg, Richard · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), Wheeling, ILTo Waukegan National Airport (UGN), Waukegan, 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 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 · climb to 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 contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT THE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF POWER FROM THE ENGINE. WHEN ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE ENGINE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL THE PLT SELECTED A TWO LANE ROAD AND PERFORMED AN OFF AIRPORT FORCED LANDING. DURING THE DESCENT THE PLT EXTENDED THE LANDING GEAR AND SELECTED FULL FLAP EXTENSION. THE PLT OBSERVED A GAP IN THE TRAFFIC ON THE ROAD AND SLIPPED THE AIRPLANE IN ORDER TO POSITION THE AIRPLANE FOR LANDING IN THE OPEN AREA. THE NO POWER GLIDE, FLARE, AND TOUCHDOWN WERE SUCCESSFUL AND HARD BRAKING SLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO APPROXIMATELY 30 KTS BEFORE THE RIGHT WING STRUCK SMALL ROADSIDE TREES CAUSING THE AIRPLANE TO SWERVE RIGHT. TWO OF THE THREE LANDING GEAR FAILED AS THE AIRPLANE CROSSED THROUGH A SHALLOW DITCH AND CAME TO A STOP. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM DISCLOSED THE PRESENCE OF WATER.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION CAUSED BY ICE BLOCKED FUEL LINES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89DEE01
- Event ID
- 20001213X27387
- Case number
- CHI89DEE01
- 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: 8dc688ce753c1193df557f1ee5ef4c5e4a99e58c14732680818f30c2b86a87a4; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:09:32.371Z.