CHI01FA128 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during an emergency descent
From M33 · Gallatin, TN to Harbour Airport (MO30)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01FA128
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 210L
- 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
- N5060V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M33 · Gallatin, TNTo Harbour Airport (MO30), Potosi, MO
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft control › Not possible
- Empennage › Cut/severed
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Fatigue
- Propeller system/accessories › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While in cruise flight the engine crankshaft completely fractured and the propeller separated from the airplane subsequently striking the empennage. Witnesses reported that the airplane rolled to the right and impacted the terrain. The propeller severed the rudder control cables, the left horizontal stabilizer and elevator, and the vertical stabilizer. The engine crankshaft was fractured between the crankshaft oil seal and the propeller flange. The propeller flange remained attached to the propeller hub assembly. According to the NTSB Materials Laboratory Factual Report, "Bench binocular microscope examination of the fracture face revealed crack arrest marks typical of a fatigue cracking. The fatigue crack emanated from multiple origins at the external surface of the aft fillet radius from the propeller flange... ." The accident airplane had been involved in a propeller strike incident in which the propeller was damaged. The propeller was removed and sent for inspection and overhaul. According to the maintenance logbooks, a teardown inspection of the engine was not completed as required by Teledyne Continental Motors Service Bulletin SB-96-11. At the time of the accident the engine had accumulated 573.6 hours since the propeller strike event.
Probable cause
The fracture of the crankshaft due to fatigue, the propeller separating from the airplane while in-flight, which resulted in the propeller striking the empennage structure and flight controls, yielding the airplane uncontrollable. Contributing factors to the accident were the previous damage to the crankshaft, the company/operator management disregarding the engine manufacture's service bulletin mandating an engine teardown inspection after a propeller strike event, and the inadequate inspection of the engine by the company maintenance staff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01FA128
- Event ID
- 20010501X00844
- Case number
- CHI01FA128
- 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: 4777157c864d265106be9299549c00ac801997af4409f2a81df3930a77d6ce4f; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:34:58.930Z.