CEN12FA311 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) on approach
From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN) to 0000 · Boyd, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12FA311
- 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
- 1 · 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 T210L
- 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
- N29112
- Operator
- Steven Dauenhauer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN), Shreveport, LATo 0000 · Boyd, TX
- 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 go-around
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness reported observing the airplane on what seemed to be a normal approach toward the 1,800-foot-long grass airstrip before the airplane was no longer visible behind treelines. A pilot-rated passenger stated that the wind was calm during the straight-in approach and that the airplane had not touched down by about midfield, at which time, the pilot initiated a go-around. During the climbout, the pilot retracted the flaps. The airplane subsequently collided with the top of a treeline located perpendicular to the departure end of the runway, rolled left, struck more trees, and then impacted the ground. A postimpact fire ensued.
Visual meteorological conditions with light wind prevailed at the time of the accident. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any preexisting anomalies that would have contributed to the accident. Estimated weight and balance calculations showed that the airplane was within limits for takeoff and landing.
Airplane performance calculations indicated that the airplane should have had positive climb performance during the go-around; however, the pilot retracted the flaps when the airplane was about 900 feet down the runway, which left only 900 feet to clear the 30-foot-high treeline. Therefore, although the airplane had positive climb performance, the delayed go-around and early retraction of the flaps left the airplane in a position with insufficient distance to clear the treeline, which resulted in a collision with the trees.
Probable cause
The pilot’s delayed initiation of a go-around and early retraction of the flaps during the maneuver, which resulted in a collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12FA311
- Event ID
- 20120522X61319
- Case number
- CEN12FA311
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2012-05-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 344c838bdbf3cbea9c9dc5c42b5c58e7636ba4b8a6adb46522bdb5f28a865642; retrieved 2026-09-13T22:23:57.443Z.