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ERA13FA209 · Cessna 210E

19 Apr 2013 · Williamsburg, VA, United States

Cessna 210E · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach

From Potomac Airfield (VKX) to Williamsburg Jamestown Airport (JGG)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA13FA209
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
2 · 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 210E

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
N111BK
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Potomac Airfield (VKX), Potomac, MDTo Williamsburg Jamestown Airport (JGG), Williamsburg, VA
Aircraft age
About 48 years (built 1965)
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 final
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
Aerodynamic stall/spin
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 oper/perf/capability
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot departed just ahead of a broken line of thunderstorms and rain showers to the west of his flight path and flew south to his destination airport without incident. The pilot reported on the common traffic advisory frequency that he was turning from the airport pattern base leg to final approach. According to witnesses, the airplane passed beyond the extended runway centerline of runway 13, entered a steep right turn toward runway 13, pitched down, and descended at a steep angle behind a tree line. The airplane impacted trees and terrain about ½ mile from the approach end of the runway. The wind at the time of the accident was reported to be from 180 degrees at 14 knots, gusting to 28 knots. In addition, the area around the accident site was included in an airmen's meteorological information advisory for moderate turbulence and low-level wind shear. Postcrash examination of the airframe and engine revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control during a base-to-final turn with a gusting wind and potential turbulence/wind shear, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and collision with terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA13FA209
Event ID
20130419X75623
Case number
ERA13FA209
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: b65bf68c3bf95d285aa5a9fa06052fa8eb66dcf29c225eaeddfac941a29bf09c; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:55:44.279Z.