WPR16LA030 · Cessna T210N
Aircraft Guaranty Cessna T210N · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Camarillo International Airport (CMA) to Brackett Field (POC)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16LA030
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N91HC
- Operator
- Aircraft Guaranty
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CATo Brackett Field (POC), La Verne, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 34 years (built 1981)
- 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
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was performing an aerial survey flight and departed with the fuel tanks filled to maximum capacity. After performing the survey, he began his return to the destination airport with about 40 minutes of fuel on board. While en route, he determined the fuel quantity was lower than he expected and opted to divert to a nearby airport. Before landing, the pilot switched the fuel selector to the fullest fuel tank (left side), which showed about 6-7 gallons; the right side showed about 4-5 gallons. While on final approach, the engine suddenly experienced a total loss of power, and the pilot was unable to restart it. With the propeller windmilling, the pilot aligned the airplane with the closest runway and configured the airplane for best glide. As the airplane neared the ground, the left wing collided with a sign and the airplane impacted the ground. The airplane erupted in flames and was partially consumed by fire.
The left wing was separated from the airframe and mostly consumed by fire. The right wing was partially burned and remained loosely attached to the airframe. Wreckage retrieval personnel recovered about 2 1/4 gallons of fuel from the right wing and stated that there was water in the sample; however, foam had been used to extinguish the fire, and the source of the water could not be determined. Due to the severe damage to the fuel system, continuity of the system could not be established. The examination revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunction or failures of the airframe or engine that would have prevented normal operation. Fuel consumption calculations revealed that, if the airplane departed on the flight with full fuel tanks, then there should have been about 21 gallons of fuel on board at the time of the accident. Due to the damage and postimpact fire, which precluded thorough examination of the fuel system and determination of the amount of fuel on board, the reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16LA030
- Event ID
- 20151119X00825
- Case number
- WPR16LA030
- 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, coordinates. 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: 58d5a7c02114cc2cb14a1756c6c05e84b887bd0805e7bc8b9f8c26487448ee16; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:58:27.935Z.