CHI90LA048 · Cessna 310Q
Cessna 310Q · Accident: fire en route
From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) to Paul C. Miller-Sparta Airport (8D4)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA048
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 310Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N117CC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR), Grand Rapids, MITo Paul C. Miller-Sparta Airport (8D4), Sparta, MI
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Engine compartment › Fire
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Grand Rapids, MI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOUT 3.5 MILES FROM THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT WHEN THE PILOT NOTICED SMOKE IN THE COCKPIT. THE SMOKE WAS THE RESULT OF A FIRE IN THE RIGHT ENGINE NACELLE. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE SHUT DOWN AND FEATHERED THE RIGHT ENGINE AND RETURNED TO THE AIRPORT FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING. DUE TO THE EXTENSIVE HEAT AND FIRE DAMAGE, INVESTIGATORS WERE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE. POST-ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PILOT HAD NOT SHUT OFF THE FUEL TO THE ENGINE, WHICH INCREASED THE INTENSITY OF THE DAMAGE. THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN MAINTAINED IN ACCORDANCE WITH FEDERAL REGULATIONS AND ALL APPLICABLE AD NOTES HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. THE FORCED LANDING WAS SUCCESSFUL; DESPITE OVERRUNNING THE RUNWAY END, NO DAMAGE OCCURRED DURING LANDING. THE FIRE CONTINUED TO BURN AFTER THE PILOT ESCAPED AND CAUSED SUBSTANTIAL WING DAMAGE.
Probable cause
THE UNDETERMINED ENGINE COMPARTMENT FIRE DURING THE INITIAL CLIMBOUT. A FACTOR WAS THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO SHUT OFF THE FUEL SUPPLY TO THE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA048
- Event ID
- 20001213X29936
- Case number
- CHI90LA048
- 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: f33f3c06b17272f9fec3c131907e58431db57b79196451fd32288bf10ebb38d7; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:55:02.072Z.