Promptair Cessna 210N accident
Cessna 210N · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) to Quad City International Airport (MLI)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87FA069
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 210N
- 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
- N4968C
- Operator
- Promptair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)To Quad City International Airport (MLI), Moline, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
JUST BFR TKOF FM RWY 22L ON A NGT IFR FLT, THE PLT WAS CLRD TO CLB & MAINT 2000' & TO CONTACT CHICAGO DEP CTL (TRACON). ABOUT 1 MIN LATER, HE CALLED TRACON & RPRTD HE WAS CLBG THRU 900' FOR 2000'. THIS CALL WAS IN A NORMAL TONE OF VOICE & WAS THE LAST TRANSMISSION FM THE ACFT. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED IN A STEEP DSCNT APRX 6000' SOUTH OF THE ARPT & 3200' LEFT OF THE EXTDD RWY CTRLN. THE LAST OF 4 RADAR 'HITS' SHOWED THE ACFT HAD CLBD TO 1300' MSL (ABOUT 700' AGL) BFR THE ACDNT. NO PREIMPACT ENG OR FLT CTL PRBLM WAS FND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACDNT, BUT THERE WERE 4 OPEN 'WRITE-UPS' DATED 1/27/87 THAT CONCERNED COCKPIT & INSTRUMENT LGTG. THESE INCLUDED: LEFT SIDE (PLT'S) OVERHEAD FLOOD LGT INOP, PANEL FLOOD LGTS INOP, INTERIOR LGTG CTL KNOB CONSTANT-LY FALLING OFF, PANEL POST LGTS EITHER FULL ON OR OFF. FOR CARGO OPNS, THE MAINT SYS ALLOWED DISCREPANCIES TO BE DELAYEDFOR UP TO SVRL DAYS UNTIL THE ACFT WAS RTRND TO THE HOME BASE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87FA069
- Event ID
- 20001213X30049
- Case number
- CHI87FA069
- 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 1987-01-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c98cd5755698315e2207aaa09131825a907e00421d7cce55972d6ed154926c10; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:15:12.991Z.