SEA86LA249 · Cessna P-210
Cessna P-210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Walla Walla Regional Airport (ALW) to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86LA249
- 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 P-210
- Aircraft type
- Cessna P-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
- N6185W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Walla Walla Regional Airport (ALW), Walla Walla, WATo King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA
- 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 (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
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Failure, total
- Light condition › Dark night
- Object › Fence
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN CRUISE AT 14,000 FEET MSL, A CATASTROPHIC ENGINE FAILURE WITH A FLASH FIRE AT THE TURBOCHARGER OCCURRED. A TURN TO REVERSE DIRECTION FOR A FORCED LANDING WAS INITIATED WHILE MAKING A RAPID DESCENT. AN UNDERSHOOT TO THE RUNWAY OCCURRED WITH THE LANDING GEAR CATCHING ON A WIRE FENCE. THE NOSE GEAR AND LEFT MAIN GEAR SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT WHEN IT STRUCK THE FENCE. THE ACFT THEN TRAVELED A SHORT DISTANCE BEFORE STRIKING THE GROUND IN A FLAT ATTITUDE. THE NUMBER THREE PISTON, CONNECTING ROD, AND CAP HAD SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. A TOP OVERHAUL HAD BEEN PERFORMED ON THE ENGINE 11 MONTHS (163 FLIGHT HOURS) PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86LA249
- Event ID
- 20001213X34887
- Case number
- SEA86LA249
- 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 1986-09-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2bee1bac39738368a20f7c5e81ed3cebee9e7af8642acf0a3742b72237d52ed3; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:58:40.268Z.