Flight Express Cessna 210L accident
Cessna 210L · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Boone County Airport (HRO) to Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA057
- 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
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument 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
- N210CT
- Operator
- Flight Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boone County Airport (HRO), Harrison, ARTo Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF), Springfield, 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 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
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The single-engine airplane was destroyed following an in-flight breakup during initial climb after takeoff into instrument meteorological conditions. A civil flight following employee observed the airplane depart the airport to the north and a few minutes later the airplane was observed making a right turn back toward the airport. The instrument-rated commercial pilot had 3,456 hours of total flight time, with 1,700 hours in the accident aircraft model. The pilot was very familiar with the route of flight, as this was his daily scheduled flight. The weather at the time of departure was reported as winds from 350 degrees at 4 knots, visibility 2.5 statute miles in light snow and mist, few clouds at 800 feet, broken ceiling at 1,800 feet, and overcast skies at 2,700 feet. There was no convective system reported within 200-mile radius of the airport. The VOR servicing the airport was out of service at the time of the accident; however, the pilot was aware and had received a clearance direct to his destination airport. The airplane was properly equipped for flight into known icing conditions. Additionally, the airplane was equipped with a backup vacuum system as well as a standby alternator system. Witnesses reported that the engine "sounded great" until the pitch of the engine appeared to overspeed followed by two "long scraping sounds." The airplane wreckage came to rest 2.5 miles northeast of the departure airport. The wreckage was found fragmented along the ground for approximately 2,534 feet on a northerly heading. The wing flaps were found in the up position and the landing gear was found in the retracted position. The sequence of the in-flight failure could not be determined. The fractures on both wings exhibited overload signatures. The attitude indicator and directional gyro were examined. Both gyros showed indication of rotation at the time of the impact. All separations of the airframe and flight control system appeared characteristic of overload.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the aircraft and the exceedance of the manufactured limits, which resulted in an in flight break-up. Contributing factors were the dark night conditions and the clouds.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA057
- Event ID
- 20021209X05576
- Case number
- FTW03FA057
- 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, coordinates. 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: 3524fa69e3f9a07e1abaea366a7b8e575bfeffeac4415fe66d787dfa45fe5e17; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:03:33.284Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N210CT; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, FPIA.