IAD05FA012 · Cessna P210
Cessna P210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN) to John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05FA012
- 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 P210
- 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
- N6539P
- Operator
- Scott W. Hudelson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN), Talledega, ALTo John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OH
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, alignment, 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 single-engine airplane was in cruise flight at 19,000 feet when the pilot reported a loss of cabin pressurization, followed by a loss of engine oil pressure, and ultimately a total loss of engine power. With the assistance of air traffic control, the pilot was able to maneuver the airplane to a position over an airport, but was not able to successfully complete a forced landing due to a low cloud ceiling in the area. The wreckage was mostly consumed by a postcrash fire. Examination of the wreckage revealed the engine crankcase was breached, primarily above the number 5 and number 6 cylinders. A turbocharger wastegate hose that was realigned about 17 months earlier was found to have rubbed through. Staining on the turbocharger housing was consistent with the position of an oil leak from the hose; however, the quantity and rate at which the leak occurred could not be determined. The numbers 1 through 5 connecting rods and rod bearings exhibited thermal distress. The number 6 connecting rod and bearing did not, and according to the engine manufacturer, the bearing exhibited "no signs of cavitation, oil starvation, thermal distress, or hard particle embedment." Engine manufacturer correspondence stated that it was not uncommon for the number 6 connecting rod bearing to exhibit little or no damage after an oil starvation event. An examination of the number 6 connecting rod assembly revealed fatigue cracking; however, it was "high stress" fatigue cracking, suggesting that some other event occurred before the connecting rod fractured.
Probable cause
Improper alignment of a turbocharger oil line, which resulted in wear damage through the hose wall and a subsequent loss of engine oil. Contributing to the accident was the low cloud ceiling.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05FA012
- Event ID
- 20041124X01867
- Case number
- IAD05FA012
- 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: 68e7ec78bd35bf61ea10104089a340035372b8e62b91d812b9dd9dee71807c85; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:12:15.012Z.