ERA19FA059 · Cessna 210 D
Cessna 210 D · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
From Apalachicola Regional Airport (AAF) to Page Field (FMY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19FA059
- 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
- 0
- 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 D
- 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
- N3995Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Apalachicola Regional Airport (AAF), Apalachicola, FLTo Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 54 years (built 1964)
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot had departed on the second leg of a cross-country flight just after the end of civil twilight. Another pilot approaching the airport from the west reported seeing the airplane as it departed to the east and communicating with the pilot over the radio. Soon afterward, the other pilot observed a fireball. The wreckage was subsequently found in a remote, unlit marsh about 2 miles north of the airport. The pilot did not make any distress calls over the radio.
Examination of the wreckage and accident site indicated a high-energy, near-wings-level impact at a shallow descent angle, which was consistent with controlled flight into terrain. The landing gear was down, and the flaps were up. The wreckage examination revealed no evidence of a preaccident mechanical failure or malfunction that would have precluded normal operation of the airframe or engine.
The accident occurred at the end of civil twilight, and, because of the cloud cover, no moon would have been visible. The lack of external lighting cues as the pilot took off over an area with no lights would have been conducive to the development of spatial disorientation. The pilot likely experienced a vestibular illusion and/or spatial disorientation and allowed the airplane to descend into the marsh under controlled flight.
The pilot's diabetes was well controlled and thus not a factor in this accident. Toxicology testing revealed the pilot's use of venlafaxine, an antidepressant. The cognitive impairment associated with depression could have made the pilot more susceptible to spatial disorientation and less able to recognize the situation and respond quickly. However, given the available evidence, the investigation could not determine whether cognitive impairment related to depression contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's controlled flight into terrain as a result of his spatial disorientation during departure in dark nighttime conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19FA059
- Event ID
- 20181130X14057
- Case number
- ERA19FA059
- 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: 237ddc2877a74fb32c98bb6ad82614763269f816694d22781299339a45169269; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:51:34.242Z.