ATL89LA074 · Cessna T210N
Ron Jon Cessna T210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Florence Regional Airport (FLO) to Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA074
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N5289Y
- Operator
- Ron Jon
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Florence Regional Airport (FLO), Florence, SCTo Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), Gainesville, FL
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Undertorqued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED HEARING A KNOCKING SOUND WHILE CLIMBING THROUGH 5000 FT AFTER TKOF. THE KNOCKING WAS FOLLOWED BY A LOUD NOISE AND ENGINE VIBRATION. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE APPARENTLY HAD LOST A CYLINDER AND OIL PRESSURE WAS DROPPING. HE DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND RECEIVED RADAR VECTORS. AFTER DESCENDING THROUGH CLOUDS, THE PLT REPORTED THAT SMOKE AND FLAMES WERE COMING FROM THE COWLING. THE PLT ELECTED TO MAKE A FORCED LDG IN A SMALL FIELD. ON TOUCHDOWN, THE NOSEGEAR COLLAPSED AND THE ACFT NOSED OVER. EXAM OF THE ENGINE REVEALED TWO BROKEN CONNECTING RODS AND THAT TWO CRANKCASE THROUGHBOLTS WERE UNDERTORQUED. THE CRANKSHAFT MN BRG HAD ROTATED, BLOCKING THE OIL PASSAGE TO THE OTHER CRANKSHAFT BRGS. OVERHEATING OF THE CONNECTING ROD JOURNALS AND BRGS WAS EVIDENT. THE NO 2 CYLINDER HAD BEEN REPLACED JAN 2, 1989, 28 HRS BEFORE THE ACDT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL TO PROPERLY TORQUE THE THRU BOLTS DURING NUMBER 2 CYLINDER INSTALLATION. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE TERRAIN FEATURES WHICH LED TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE NOSE GEAR DURING LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA074
- Event ID
- 20001213X27535
- Case number
- ATL89LA074
- 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: 4447ab5cb41a087145a8bcd29aa5c6a3b61845f3c8b0563aca5dd84a88d9529a; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:59:30.462Z.