LAX05LA120 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Show Low Regional Airport (SOW) to Sky Ranch At Carefree Airport (18AZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA120
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N6897N
- Operator
- Michael J. Feliksa · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Show Low Regional Airport (SOW), Show Low, AZTo Sky Ranch At Carefree Airport (18AZ), Carefree, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 › Fuel boost pump selector position, improper
- 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 hit the ground short of the runway following a failure of the engine to respond to throttle command on short final approach. The pilot said that on short final with the landing gear down and full flaps, the airplane started settling. The pilot added power and the engine failed to respond. The pilot said that it was his habit to use the low fuel boost pump for landing even though the Pilot Owner Handbook (POH) did not call for it. In the POH section 7, Airplane and System Descriptions, it shares an information note: "If the engine-driven fuel pump is functioning and the auxiliary fuel pump switch is placed in the ON position, an excessively rich fuel/air ratio is produced unless the mixture is leaned." With the low (yellow) boost pump switch on during a reduced power approach, if the throttle is increased the boost pump goes to high and the engine can be flooded with an excessive rich mixture. According to the Cessna Pilot Safety and Warning Supplements booklet under Fuel Pressure Switch Operation/Normal Auxiliary Fuel Pump Operation, it states in part: "During cruise, the auxiliary fuel pump(s) may be used at any time to clear excessive fuel vapor, as evidenced by an unstable fuel flow indication; however; the auxiliary fuel pump(s) should be turned off prior to descent. Failure to turn off the pump(s) could cause a power failure at reduced throttle settings or with a rapid throttle advance due to an excessively rich mixture, especially if the throttle switch rigging or fuel pressure switch settings are out of tolerance." No anomalies were found during an examination that would have precluded the engine from functioning normally.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper use of the fuel boost pump contrary to the procedures specified in the pilot owner handbook and other documents.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA120
- Event ID
- 20050329X00376
- Case number
- LAX05LA120
- 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: 5f05e25d9c70eae2c3d62b877c9e05b967651ddb409e40809c3f7c8d5fa0ef58; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:09:01.903Z.