Cessna 210D N2340F

Summary

On 5 April 1999 at about 16:50 local time, a Cessna 210D registered N2340F was involved in an accident near El Monte, California, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

5 April 1999 at 16:50

Classification

Accident

Location

El Monte, California, United States

Coordinates

34.0806, -118.0307

Aircraft

Cessna 210D

Registration

N2340F

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Pamona → Santa Maria

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX99LA140

2 people had minor injuries.

A loss of engine power due to the fatigue failure of the mixture control cable, which was due to the improper installation and adjustment of the cable 99 hours prior to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The aircraft had reached its cruise altitude of 8,500 feet when the engine smoothly quit. The pilot contacted a nearby airport control tower, reported the power failure, and said he needed to land. The local controller cleared the flight to land on any runway. Shortly thereafter, the pilot radioed that he would not make the field and landed gear-up in a dry wash area. During the landing, the aircraft collided with trees and an embankment. Examination of the airplane disclosed that the mixture control cable was fractured and disconnected from the cable's rod-eye end, which was still attached to the mixture arm of the fuel metering unit. The break in the cable was at the engine rod-eye end of the flexible cable at the point where the cable is swaged onto the rod. A metal outer sheath slides over the rod and the eye end of the rod is longitudinally adjustable so that the rod and cable can ride inside the outer metal sheath to provide support against bending loads. The length adjustment nuts on the rod-eye end were found adjusted all the way down so that the cable to rod swage point was outside the sheath at the full rich mixture setting. Metallurgical examination of the cable found that it failed in fatigue due to excessive and repetitive bending. According to the maintenance records, the mixture control cable was replaced at the last annual inspection on June 2, 1998, 99 hours prior to the accident. No other anomalies were found with the engine or its related systems.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.