CHI07CA261 · Cessna 210 D
Cessna 210 D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07CA261
- 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 210 D
- 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
- N3794Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA), Fort Wayne, INTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
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 made a forced landing after a loss of engine power while turning left base for a touch and go landing. The pilot reported that he estimated that the fuel remaining in the airplane after a previous flight was about 20 to 30 gallons, all in the left fuel tank. He reported, "I had run rt. [right] tank out of fuel and left remaining fuel in lt. [left] tank." He reported that during the preflight, the fuel gauges indicated that the left fuel tank was empty, and the right fuel tank was full. The pilot reported that a ladder was not available so he did not visually check the fuel in the tanks. He reported that he had planned to do three takeoffs and landings. He reported that he departed on the first takeoff and while turning a left base for runway 32, the engine lost power. He attempted an engine restart but without success. He executed a forced landing to a cornfield. The inspection of the airplane revealed that both fuel tanks were empty. When the battery was turned on, the left fuel gauge indicated full and the right fuel gauge indicated no fuel.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilot's inadequate preflight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07CA261
- Event ID
- 20071011X01560
- Case number
- CHI07CA261
- 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: 886225a9d5c777375a57593b471adefbaa314ce4fdae1c768a13ebc944a7a059; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:32:45.822Z.