DEN08LA069 · Cessna P210N
Cessna P210N · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA) to Centennial Airport (APA)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08LA069
- 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 P210N
- 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
- N4839P
- Operator
- Roger L. Millheim · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA), Lamar, COTo Centennial Airport (APA), Denver, CO
- 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 · descent
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a normal descent on approach for landing at 8,500 feet mean sea level, the engine "let go/popped into a higher pitch sound, and the power dropped off. [The pilot] checked the fuel flow, tried to get power with the throttle, but no response." During a forced landing, the airplane impacted the side of a gravel road, traveled across the road, struck a ditch, and skidded on the fuselage bottom for approximately 75 feet were it came to rest upright in a residential yard. Examination of the engine exhibited fretting on all six cylinder decks and the main bearing case half sections. The number 2 main bearing support bearing tang lock-slot was found elongated. Various degrees of wear were noted on all crankshaft main bearings, and the number 2 main bearing showed additional wear. The crankshaft number 2 main journal exhibited signatures of thermal discoloration. All oil transfer galleries were free and clear of debris. The camshaft was intact, however, the camshaft gear had a semi-circular section with 7 gear teeth separated, which was found in the gearbox. Metallurgical examination showed the fracture initiated at the surface and progressed in fatigue. The initiation site was damaged; however, the approximate location was identified by crack arrest lines, which encircled the origin. The reason for the fracture initiation could not be determined.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power due to the fatigue failure of the camshaft gear. Contributing to the accident was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08LA069
- Event ID
- 20080402X00414
- Case number
- DEN08LA069
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 8a25293158993fa3e6556db45df5debab433a506279dc1c435435db4812cdefe; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:28:53.544Z.