LAX04LA111 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR) to Gila Bend, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA111
- 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 T210L
- 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
- N2234S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, CATo Gila Bend, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Total 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
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 experienced a forced landing after a loss of power due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot stated that they had departed Burbank, California, en route to Gila Bend, Arizona, where they were going to refuel. The pilot reported to FAA inspectors that he had fueled the airplane to it's 90-gallon capacity the day before the accident and had flown the airplane for 1 hour after that. During the accident flight, the pilot had used a richer mixture to aid in cooling one cylinder. He told the inspector that this may have led to a miscalculation of the fuel consumption during the flight. As the flight neared the vacinity of Gila Bend, the pilot contacted Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) and reported a low fuel situation and that he was going to land at Gila Bend for fuel. The controller contacted the Gila Bend airport and determined that there was no fuel available there and suggested that the pilot should divert to another airport. They then headed towards Buckeye Municipal Airport, but were later notified by ARTCC that Buckeye also did not have fuel. At this time they diverted to the Phoenix Goodyear Airport and advised the tower that they were low on fuel and coming in to land. As they approached the airport, the pilot switched fuel tanks but the airplane exhibited signs of fuel exhaustion. The engine lost power, and the pilot landed in a plowed field about 1 mile from the airport. Post accident inspection by FAA inspectors found no fuel onboard the airplane. All fuel lines and tanks were intact. The inspectors found no evidence of a fuel leak. According to the Pilot's Operating Handbook, the Cessna T210L has a fuel capacity of 90 gallons; .5 gallons are unusable on each side. According to the engine's manufacturer, the average fuel burn is about 18 gallons per hour at 75 percent horsepower.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate fuel consumption calculations and in-flight planning/decision, which resulted in fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA111
- Event ID
- 20040203X00151
- Case number
- LAX04LA111
- 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: ad4c3b75218f61c2b55aaf018e9fc3a1e2b333465121bed5b95ea7017282c683; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:19:20.734Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilot "departed Burbank, California, en route to Gila Bend, Arizona, where they were going to refuel"; Phoenix Goodyear Airport was a diversion after Gila Bend and Buckeye had no fuel.