FTW04FA079 · Cessna 210N
Cessna 210N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF) to Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04FA079
- 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
- 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 210N
- 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
- N6175Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TXTo Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR), Sugarland, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to departure, the 580-hour, non-instrument rated private pilot obtained two weather briefings from an automated flight service station (FSS). A briefer reported that an AIRMET for IFR conditions was in affect and VFR was not recommended across the proposed route of flight. The AIRMET for IFR conditions would continue beyond 0900 and end at 1200. In addition, a briefer told the pilot to contact FSS while en route and obtain weather advisories. The pilot departed about 0915, and there are no records that he contacted FSS while airborne. Examination of the last one minute of data revealed the target was at an altitude of 5,400 feet msl, on a heading of 102 degrees at 158 knots, when it made a right 180-degree turn, before the data ended at 1039. A witness said the weather conditions at the time were light drizzle, haze, limited visibility, and that it had been raining, but had "just let up." He heard the airplane circle overhead for several minutes followed by a loud explosion at 1045. According to FAA Flight Training Handbook Advisory Circular (AC) 61-21A, "If neither horizon or surface references exist, the airplane's attitude must be determined by artificial means - an attitude indicator or other flight instruments. Sight, supported by other senses such as the inner ear and muscle sense, is used to maintain spatial orientation. However, during periods of low visibility, the supporting senses sometimes conflict with what is seen. When this happens, a pilot is particularly vulnerable to spatial disorientation." A toxicology report detected hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic, in the pilot's liver and kidney. Since blood was not available for testing, it is not possible to determine when the pilot may have ingested the prescribed medication or whether he may have been impaired from it. Hydrocodone may cause some people to become drowsy, dizzy, or lightheaded. According to an FAA flight surgeon, using hydrocodone within 24 hours of flying is not recommended.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued flight into known adverse weather and failure to maintain control of the airplane while maneuvering in instrument meteorological conditions, due to spatial disorientation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04FA079
- Event ID
- 20040302X00254
- Case number
- FTW04FA079
- 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: 0abfc5568fcad283294567d6461bd5d76af62070693ca2d133be4350e06ed0e0; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:32:48.958Z.