Richland Aviation Cessna T210M accident
Cessna T210M · Accident: loss of control in flight
From Dawson Community Airport (GDV) to Sidney - Richland Regional Airport (SDY)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84FA086
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna T210M
- 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
- N7399M
- Operator
- Richland Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dawson Community Airport (GDV), Glendive, MTTo Sidney - Richland Regional Airport (SDY), Sidney, MT
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
RICHLAND FLT #101, A BANK CHECK COURIER FLT, DEPARTED VFR WITH 180 LBS OF CARGO. SIX MINUTES PRIOR TO THE CRASH, THE LAST RADIO TRANSMISSION FROM THE ACFT WAS HEARD CONCERNING A ROUTINE LANDING WX ADVISORY. THE ACFT CRASHED APRX 45 DEGS NOSE LOW, GEAR & FLAPS UP IN FLAT, OPEN TERRAIN. A 5 DAY HISTORY ON THE PLT REVEALED THAT HER FOOD INTAKE WAS ERRATIC AND THAT SHE WAS ON A HECTIC SCHEDULE. HER FOOD INTAKE AND AMT OF REST IN THE 24 HRS PRECEEDING THE ACCIDENT IS UNKNOWN.A RELATIVE STATED THAT SHE WAS PSYCHOLOGICALLY WELL ADJUSTED. CONCERNING THE WRECKAGE, CONTROL CONTINUITY COULD NOT BE CONFIRMED DUE TO FIRE DAMAGE. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF A PRE-IMPACT MALFUNCTION. THE FOLLOWING AUTOPILOT MODE LIGHT BULBS HAD STRECHED FILAMENTS: ALT (UPPER), HDG (UPPER), FD (UPPER), VOR, NAV (UPPER), AP (UPPER) AND BC (UPPER). LASTLY, AN AUTOPSY REVEALED THAT THE RADIO MICROPHONE WAS IN THE PLT'S RIGHT HAND AT IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84FA086
- Event ID
- 20001214X38744
- Case number
- DEN84FA086
- 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: 328bf3fd09a1b6a38f32d54fb11568fb343bf3d92e29162f3da122be530b0559; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:28:59.925Z.