CHI04LA280 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA280
- 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
- N2027S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Wichita, KSTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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, oil › Lack of
- Lubricating system, oil line › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
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 sustained substantial damage when it nosed over during a forced landing following an in-flight loss of engine power. The certified flight instructor (CFI) and the private pilot sustained serious injuries. According to the CFI, the flight's purpose was to meet the dual instruction requirements of the Wings Program. The CFI's accident report stated, "Upon the completion of the turn the engine lost about 50 [percent] of its power. We thought that we could make it to Kingman Airport and started a course for it. [Approximately three and a half] miles from the airport the engine stopped [abruptly] the prop continued to windmill we made an approach to a wheat field. The pilot made a very good approach and a smooth landing. After approximately 400 ft of ground roll we encountered a terrace. It appears that this caused the nose wheel to shear off. With nothing to support the nose it caused the airplane to flip over on its back." The last annual inspection of the airframe and engine was on September 2, 2004, and the tachometer read 3,191.7 hours at the time of that inspection. That annual inspection's endorsement indicated that the number two and four cylinders were removed during that inspection. The number two cylinder was found with an eroded exhaust. That number two cylinder was replaced with an overhauled cylinder. On-scene examination of the bottom of the fuselage revealed a trail of oil on its left side. Examination of the engine revealed a hole in the top of the crankcase near the number two cylinder. Examination of the oil pressure line from the engine to the turbocharger revealed a loose "B" nut. The tachometer read 3,192.1 hours on-scene. The engine was disassembled and internal examination revealed that the rod ends for the number one and number two cylinders were discolored, deformed, and separated from the crankshaft. The crankshaft was discolored. The discoloration present was consistent with the heat produced by a lack of lubrication. The examination revealed silver colored and copper colored debris in the oil sump. That debris was consistent with bearing material. The tee fitting and pressure line with the loose "B" nut were removed from the engine case. The line's end and tee fitting's end were capped off and a fluid under pressure was supplied to the tee fitting. That fluid was observed leaking from the loose "B" nut.
Probable cause
The lack of engine oil due to the mechanic's improper maintenance in not securing the loose "B" nut for the oil pressure line to the turbocharger leading to the loss of engine power while maneuvering. An additional cause was the unsuitable terrain the pilot encountered during the forced landing. A factor was the terrace the nose wheel impacted and subsequently nosed over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA280
- Event ID
- 20040928X01512
- Case number
- CHI04LA280
- 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: 49e1de639e7a4112fcce03b33f86b282d8d083122f6bd8dcea9b4ee590daeeeb; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:12:34.119Z.