MKC86FA053 · Cessna 210H
Cessna 210H · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Cheyenne
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86FA053
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Unknown
Cessna 210H
- 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
- N5961F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Cheyenne
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Climb, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT OF N5961F RECEIVED A WX BRF ABOUT 40 MIN BEFORE THE ACDT FOR A VFR FLT FROM FREMONT TO CHEYENNE. THE 3 REPORTING STATIONS NEAREST TO FREMONT WERE IFR AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES WHO HELPED SEARCH FOR THE ACDT SITE REPORTED LOW CLOUDS AND HAZE. THERE WERE NO WITNESSES TO THE CRASH BUT RESIDENTS NEAR THE ACDT SITE HEARD THE LOUD ROAR OF ACFT ENG THAT ENDED WITH A CRASHING SOUND. A MOTORIST WHO WAS W OF THE ACDT SITE HEADING E REPORTED THAT HE SAW A LIGHT DESCENDING FROM N TO S AT ABOUT A 45 DEG ANGLE TO THE HORIZON AT ABOUT THE TIME OF THE ACDT. IT WAS DARK AT THE TIME OF THE ACDT. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND BENEATH A LARGE HOLE IN THE ICE OF A LAKE LOCATED 2 MI W OF THE DEPT ARPT. EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF MECH FAILURE OR DEFICIENCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86FA053
- Event ID
- 20010110X00230
- Case number
- MKC86FA053
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: b9a2b95c80fc7953b5a9518769bc930db1f55f3ad38f70fe6114b601e8a8f65c; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:41:46.961Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilot received a weather briefing "FOR A VFR FLT FROM FREMONT TO CHEYENNE"; nothing supports "CALIFORNIA, CA".