ERA15LA071 · Cessna 210 5(205)
Cessna 210 5(205) · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Sussex Airport (FWN) to Sussex Airport (FWN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA071
- 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 210 5(205)
- 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
- N8296Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sussex Airport (FWN), Sussex, NJTo Sussex Airport (FWN), Sussex, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 51 years (built 1963)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 handling/service
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, shortly after the skydiving flight departed, the engine experienced a "mechanical failure" and that he then executed a forced landing in a farm field south of the airport. The airplane nosed over in the mud, which resulted in structural damage to the airframe.
During a postaccident test run of the engine on the airframe, lower-than-normal exhaust gas temperature indications were observed on the engine's left-side (Nos. 2, 4, and 6) cylinders. Excessive soot and smoke were also observed on the engine's left side. During a subsequent test run, the engine initially did not achieve full power. Further examination revealed that both of the No. 2 cylinder intake valve springs were fractured, and visible rust was observed on the surfaces of the springs. The springs showed evidence of fatigue fractures that had originated from rust pits on the fracture surfaces. After the valve springs were replaced, the engine was capable of operating normally at full power.
An annual inspection was completed on the engine less than 2 months (13 engine operating hours) before the accident. As part of the annual inspection, the engine manufacturer's operating manual required the removal of the cylinder rocker covers and inspection of the valve area for breakage and proper lubrication. It is likely that maintenance personnel did not adequately inspect the No. 2 cylinder valve area during the annual inspection, which allowed the rust to go undetected and resulted in the in-flight failure of the No. 2 cylinder valve springs.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel’s inadequate inspection of the No. 2 cylinder valve area during the most recent annual inspection, which resulted in the in-flight failure of the intake valve springs due to rust on the spring surfaces and subsequent fatigue cracking.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA071
- Event ID
- 20141205X80248
- Case number
- ERA15LA071
- 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: 912134de1478ac16f6f96a860accd3b238a5fa50f730a8dcb91930255a9eca5f; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:57:50.036Z.