Cessna T210M N210HC

Summary

On 1 October 2002 at about 22:27 local time, a Cessna T210M registered N210HC was involved in an accident near Laramie, Wyoming, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 October 2002 at 22:27

Classification

Accident

Location

Laramie, Wyoming, United States

Coordinates

41.4303, -105.4756

Aircraft

Cessna T210M

Registration

N210HC

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Business

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Billings → Erie

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

NTSB number

DEN03FA002

1 person died.

the pilot's improper inflight planning/decision, and his failure to maintain terrain clearance while attempting a low altitude maneuver. Contributing factors were the mountainous terrain, the airplane’s low altitude, and the pilot's lack of total instrument time.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The instrument rated pilot was on an IFR cross-country flight. During the course of the flight, he requested a "turn back on course and if you could work out a lower altitude, we'd appreciate it." He was soon cleared to "descend and maintain one seven thousand (feet)." The pilot later asked the controller if he could "work us out of one seven thousand (feet), down to one three thousand (feet) or one one thousand (feet)." The controller cleared the pilot to descend to 13,000 feet. The pilot acknowledged the clearance and remarked, "see if we can work our way through these clouds." Later, the pilot reported, "Got a pretty big opening. I'm gonna cancel out on this IFR. I think I can make a big circle and get under this scattered layer, if that's okay with you." The controller approved the pilot's request to cancel his IFR flight plan. The airplane was in a circling descent before radar contact was lost. The wreckage was located about 45 miles from the last radar contact. According to the pilot's logbook, he had accrued 37.3 and 82.0 hours in actual and simulated instrument meteorological conditions, respectively. According to the pilot's son, his father would file an IFR flight plan and fly in the IFR "system" to stay current with IFR procedures and controller phraseology but, as a rule, he avoided flying in actual instrument meteorological conditions.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.