CEN10FA521 · Cessna P210N
Centurion Aviation Cessna P210N · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) to Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10FA521
- 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
- N4632A
- Operator
- Centurion Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR), Grand Rapids, MITo Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR), Grand Rapids, MI
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and certified flight instructor were in a holding pattern during an instrument proficiency check when they heard a bang from the airplane's engine area. They initiated a forced landing and the airplane impacted terrain at the base of a hill. Fuel leaked and a ground fire ensued, resulting in substantial damage to the left wing. No airframe preimpact anomalies were observed on-scene. An engine teardown inspection revealed a separation of the crankshaft No. 3 short cheek consistent with fatigue. Additionally, the No. 2 lower through-bolt had the lowest torque value of all bolts and incorrect hardware was used on that through-bolt. Fretting was observed on the mating surfaces of the main bearing supports near the No. 2 through-bolt and its bearing had spun out of its support. Engine logbook entries indicated a mechanic replaced cylinders that would have required the removal and installation of hardware on the No. 2 through-bolt, approximately 19 months prior to the accident.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power as a result of a fatigue failure of the crankshaft due to the loss of engine case through-bolt torque. Contributing to the accident was a mechanic's use of incorrect hardware.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10FA521
- Event ID
- 20100907X80140
- Case number
- CEN10FA521
- 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. 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: eaaa8e851ea3999e545dff112b41cb3f5179559a85a5772eca8dcada5be42f2f; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:07:28.140Z.