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CHI04LA058 · Cessna 310R

17 Jan 2004 · Port Huron, MI, United States

Cessna 310R · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing

From Albany International Airport (ALB) to St Clair County International Airport (PHN)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI04LA058
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 310R

Aircraft type
Cessna 310
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
N6102X
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, NYTo St Clair County International Airport (PHN), Port Huron, MI
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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 on ground/water
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 › Directional control, not possible
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The airplane contacted a snow berm following a loss of directional control on landing. The pilot stated that while en route she listened to the automated weather observing system (AWOS) at the destination airport. She stated she received the weather along with a notice to airmen (NOTAM) which reported the runway braking [Bowmonk scale] measurements of 33, 35, and 36 MU along with light snow. The pilot stated she was handed off to air traffic control who relayed the same information. She stated that neither the AWOS nor the controller indicated any rapid conditions changes. The pilot stated she flew the ILS approach for runway 04 breaking out of the clouds at 600 feet above ground level. She stated "I don't believe there was ever any traction obtained, aircraft began a slide towards left side of runway." The pilot reported the left main gear contacted a snow berm on the side of the runway. The nose of the airplane swung around and contacted the berm, collapsing the nose gear. The airplane came to rest 20 feet off the left side of the runway approximately 1,000 feet past the approach end of the runway. The pilot reported that the owner of the local fixed base operator came out to the runway in his pickup truck to offer assistance. She stated he also experienced no braking and that his truck also slid into the snow berm on the side of the runway. The runway friction was tested at 1002 and the NOTAM was issued at 1015. The Bowmonk readings for runway 04 were 35, 33, and 36. The NOTAM issued contained the remarks 1/2 inch loose snow over patchy ice, compacted snow and ice all surfaces, executive ramp closed. Section 3 Airport Operations, Paragraph 4-3-9 of the Airmen's Information Manual states, "MU (friction) values range from 0 to 100 where zero is the lowest friction value and 100 is the maximum friction value obtainable. For frozen contaminants on runway surfaces, a MU value of 40 or less is the level when the aircraft braking performance starts to deteriorate and directional control begins to be less responsive. The lower the MU value, the less effective braking performance becomes and the more difficult directional control becomes." Winds at the airport were reported as being from 170 degrees at 8 knots.

Probable cause

The loss of directional control as a result of reduced braking performance due to a snow-covered runway. Also causal was the pilot's decision to land with a quartering tailwind. The snowbank was a contributing factor.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI04LA058
Event ID
20040123X00102
Case number
CHI04LA058
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: 95343b0db8bc5ba41aff2ff2a34cfd341d85a8841f5f6bf03c99a4f08e9b5453; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:01:15.772Z.