Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
El Monte, California 91731
Monday, April 5, 1999 9:50 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
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.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 4/5/1999 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 950 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | EL MONTE |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 91731 |
| Event Date Year | 1999 |
| Event Date Month | 4 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 947 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 35 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | EMT |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 296 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 2 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 0 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Light and Variable |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Minor |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 2 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1671 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Apr 5 1999 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1005 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 4 2001 7:07AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N2340F |
| NTSB Number | LAX99LA140 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 210D |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 210D |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 21058540 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3100 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 6 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jun 2 1998 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 99 |
| Airframe Hours | 3778 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | MICKEY EPPS & TERRY CAIRY |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 2107 W. SAN BERNARDINO ROAD |
| Aircraft Owner City | WEST COVINA |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 91790 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | POC |
| Departure City | PAMONA |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 930 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SMX |
| Destination City | SANTA MARIA |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 4 2001 7:07AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |