FTW04CA084 · Cessna T210M
Butler Brothers and Cervi Rodeo Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY) to San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04CA084
- 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 T210M
- 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
- N50MC
- Operator
- Butler Brothers and Cervi Rodeo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, COTo San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT), San Angelo, 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
- 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 › 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 6,500-hour commercial pilot reported that prior to departing he had, "completed a preflight and checked all fuel tanks to make sure they were full." During the 580-nautical mile cross-country flight, while in cruise flight at 11, 000 feet msl, the pilot advised air traffic control that he was low on fuel and requested a straight-in approach to the airport. Approximately nine minutes later, during a descent in instrument meteorological conditions, the pilot informed air traffic control that the engine was "quitting" and, "we're out of gas... we're out of gas." The pilot regained visual contact approximately 1, 200 feet above the ground, and landed in a partially obstructed field. During the forced landing, the airplane collided with mesquite trees of various sizes. Examination of the airplane revealed the right wing fuel tank contained approximately one cup of fuel, and that no fuel was observed in the left fuel tank. Both fuel caps were found secured and intact.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight planning, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain available for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04CA084
- Event ID
- 20040331X00401
- Case number
- FTW04CA084
- 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: fa41e28abc60eba408053c0fbc431aa1281885547fbf7a940973b8cf29af5949; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:17:23.731Z.