LAX06LA175 · Cessna 210J
Cessna 210J · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chehalis Centralia Airport (CLS) to Benton Field (O85)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA175
- 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 210J
- 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
- N3384S
- Operator
- Robert L. Hicks · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chehalis Centralia Airport (CLS), Chehalis, WATo Benton Field (O85), Redding, CA
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise the airplane lost engine power and the pilot ditched the airplane in a lake. The pilot said that during the preflight, he used a fuel stick to determine the fuel quantity in each fuel tank. He indicated that there was between 53 and 55 gallons of fuel onboard at the time of departure. One hour into the flight, he switched fuel tanks from the left to the right fuel tank, and planned to switch back to the left fuel tank after another hour had passed. Once he arrived in the airport environment he overheard a radio transmission from a departing aircraft, so he diverted towards a nearby dam to allow the other aircraft time to depart the airport environment. While in the vicinity of the dam at 1,200 feet above the ground the engine quit. He immediately switched fuel tanks, turned on the fuel boost pump, and advanced the throttle; however, the engine did not respond. As he approached the dam, he observed power lines surrounding the dam. His intention was to ditch the airplane in the water due to unsuitable terrain in the area for an emergency landing. After the airplane cleared the power lines, he made a descent towards the water. The airplane impacted the water at 60 miles per hour. An engine inspection and teardown were conducted after the aircraft was recovered from the lake with no discrepancies noted that would have precluded normal operation. Eight gallons of fuel was recovered from the left fuel tank, and no fuel was recovered from the right fuel tank. No fuel was found in the fuel injector nozzles, that were found to be clear of debris. The fuel lines were clear and intact. No fuel was found in the engine driven fuel pump.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation due to the pilot's inaccurate fuel consumption calculations and inadequate fuel system management.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA175
- Event ID
- 20060620X00776
- Case number
- LAX06LA175
- 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: efe0e5cb05dbb9864161441b0ab4dd98099b0a77ca2330fd38a72855acf09da4; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:46:23.288Z.