CHI02LA066 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) to Plymouth Municipal Airport (C65)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA066
- 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
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N4785U
- Operator
- Richard W. Owen · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, ILTo Plymouth Municipal Airport (C65), Plymouth, IN
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot said that on takeoff roll on runway 31L at Chicago Midway Airport (MDW), he accelerated to 65 KIAS and rotated approximately at the intersection of runway 22L. The pilot said the rotation was more than desired. He said he attempted to hold 10 degrees nose up pitch attitude. Immediately after liftoff the airplane began to simultaneously yaw to the left and drift to the left. He said the airplane was unresponsive in all axes as he applied hard right aileron, right rudder, and nose down elevator. The pilot said the airplane reached an estimated height of 20 to 30 feet and began settling after passing over taxiway F. The airplane impacted into a dry pond bed in southwest quadrant of the airport. An examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies. The reported winds at MDW were 200 degrees magnetic at 13 knots.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control after takeoff. Factors relating to the accident were the pilot excessive rotation during takeoff and the crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA066
- Event ID
- 20020128X00143
- Case number
- CHI02LA066
- 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: 6d4710f91090ee4ca61ec162c0d37c19f3d2eb43a262b2c21abe2ef78d6c5722; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:11:14.588Z.