Cessna T210 N210HH

Summary

On 28 April 2020 at about 14:58 local time, a Cessna T210 registered N210HH was involved in an accident near New Braunfels, Texas, United States. 2 people were on board and one 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

28 April 2020 at 14:58

Classification

Accident

Location

New Braunfels, Texas, United States

Coordinates

29.8678, -98.2758

Aircraft

Cessna T210

Registration

N210HH

Category

Airplane

Year built

1976

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Midland → New Braunfels

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN20LA162

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and fuel planning, which resulted in the loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that he had performed a "standard" preflight check before departing for the 1.5-hour cross-country flight. He reported that he checked the fuel gauges and visually inspected the fuel levels in the tanks and estimated the airplane had about 70 gallons of fuel for the flight. Near the conclusion of the flight, the pilot was given a clearance to climb in preparation for an instrument approach to the destination airport. During the climb, the pilot noticed that the airspeed was bleeding off and the engine was not producing power. After descending below clouds, the pilot decided to land in a field at the end of a lake. However, the pilot realized that the airplane would not reach the field, and he elected to conduct a forced landing on the water, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe. Postaccident examination of the fuel tanks revealed some fuel remained, but when the fuel manifold was disassembled, no fuel was observed under its diaphragm. Recovery personnel dried the magnetos and plumbed a fuel can to the airplane for a test run of the engine, which was successful. The airplane’s fuel tanks were topped off about 3.5 flight hours before the accident flight departed; no fuel had been added since that time. With full tanks, the accident airplane’s expected endurance was about 4.8 hours of flight time. Thus, it is likely that the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion. Given the available information, it is likely the pilot did not adequately verify the quantity of fuel during the preflight inspection of the airplane or take into account the amount of fuel burned since the airplane was last fueled.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.