LAX03LA218 · Cessna 210
Cessna 210 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Cielo Airport, NM (private airstrip) to Henderson Executive Airport (KHND)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX03LA218
- 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 210
- 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
- N9544T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cielo Airport, NM (private airstrip)To Henderson Executive Airport (KHND), Henderson, NV
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported a loss of engine power while in the landing pattern. He was unable to restart the engine, and the airplane landed short of the runway, receiving structural damage. A post-accident engine examination did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions with the engine. The fuel selector was removed from the airplane, and a 3/16-inch hex bolt was found protruding into one of the engine fuel ports, effectively restricting the flow of fuel to the engine. The spark plugs were examined and compared to a manufacturer's condition chart. The chart comparison disclosed lean operating signatures.
Probable cause
A bolt in the fuel selector that restricted the flow of fuel to the engine, which resulted in fuel starvation and a partial loss of engine power during the final approach to land.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX03LA218
- Event ID
- 20030701X00985
- Case number
- LAX03LA218
- 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, 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: 6b1f3646f373b6bc89a2096ff0bcfeae2eec8a5da20ca282d857cc5e08e8743f; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:04:35.746Z.