CEN14FA064 · Cessna T210 M
Montana National Cessna T210 M · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Zamperini Field (KTOA) to Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (KASE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14FA064
- 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 T210 M
- 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
- N6832B
- Operator
- Montana National
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (KTOA), Torrance, CATo Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (KASE), Aspen, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 35 years (built 1978)
- 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
- 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 control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument-rated pilot was flying the airplane inbound to Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (ASE) on a night visual flight rules flight. While level at 13,500 feet msl, the pilot requested an instrument flight rules (IFR) clearance, most likely due to worsening weather conditions associated with snow showers. The controller issued an IFR clearance and requested that the pilot transmit the necessary flight plan information. While the pilot transmitted this information, the airplane began a climbing left turn. After noticing the airplane turn about 180 degrees, the controller queried the pilot, who had not recognized the turn and stated that his autopilot had disconnected. The controller subsequently issued the pilot a heading back toward ASE, which the pilot accepted. However, the airplane continued to turn left and then began a rapid descent to impact. Portions of the left wing, left flap and aileron, and left horizontal stabilizer and elevator were found separated from the main wreckage area. It is likely that the airplane entered instrument conditions, and the pilot became spatially disoriented as he was coordinating the instrument clearance and was unaware of the airplane's left turn and climb after the autopilot disconnected. Further, during the final rapid descent, the design stress limits of the airplane were exceeded and an in-flight breakup occurred.
Probable cause
The pilot's spatial disorientation while operating in dark night conditions in snow showers and his subsequent failure to maintain airplane control, which resulted in overstress of the airplane and an in-flight breakup. Contributing to the loss of control was the pilot's diverted attention while coordinating for an instrument flight rules clearance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14FA064
- Event ID
- 20131120X00220
- Case number
- CEN14FA064
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2013-11-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cf9c0bd3c991abaf04925c7851d7422a5681e01ccca1f41bd97276e1029dff47; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:07:33.548Z.