LAX04LA328 · Cessna 210B
Cessna 210B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA328
- 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 210B
- 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
- N9757X
- Operator
- Brett M. Waisnor · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, delayed
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
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 went over an embankment at the departure end of the runway and nosed over after the pilot aborted the takeoff. The pilot elected to takeoff with a quartering tailwind on the 6,900-foot-long runway in spite of the tower controller offering the pilot the use of the opposite runway. Witnesses indicated that the airplane lifted off the ground with 2,000 feet of runway remaining. The engine sounded as if it was not producing full power and was heard to be surging or revving up and down. The pilot noted that after liftoff the airplane would not climb over 20-25 feet above the runway and he elected to abort the takeoff and touched down with approximately 500 feet of runway remaining. According to the pilot, he adjusted the mixture for peak engine revolutions per minute before takeoff. The fuel flow indicator has white radial markings denoting the best power fuel flow for different field elevations. The recommended procedure noted in the airplane's owner manual informs the pilot that he/she should utilize the fuel flow indicator and adjust the fuel flow to that which corresponds to the field elevation marked on the face of the dial. However, the owner's manual was not in the airplane, and the pilot was utilizing a checklist that did not have the information for a high performance takeoff. The airport elevation was 7,001 feet mean sea level. The density altitude was calculated as 8,461 feet. Post-accident examination of the engine revealed that its spark plugs were dark black in color, which is consistent to an excessively rich mixture setting. Following installation of a serviceable propeller, the engine was started and exercised through out it's normal power range with no anomalies noted.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper leaning procedures and delayed decision to abort the takeoff when it became obvious that the engine was not developing full power. A factor in the accident was the pilot's decision to use a runway with a quartering tailwind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA328
- Event ID
- 20041006X01585
- Case number
- LAX04LA328
- 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: f0c4d20f4f3c03b3261758c68277a4d42d5048d4395667e18416515c0ce5f63b; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:08:03.094Z.