Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Groveland, California 95321
Monday, May 13, 2002 13:55 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The airplane collided with multiple trees during an attempted forced landing in mountainous terrain following a catastrophic engine failure in cruise. The flight was obtaining VFR flight following from air route traffic control center (ARTCC) when the facility lost radar and radio contact. The airplane came to rest near the edge of an elliptical meadow, which was about 1 mile long by 1/4 mile wide, with the long axis oriented east and west. The meadow was in mountainous terrain and surrounded by trees over 100 feet tall. The debris path was along the eastern edge of the meadow on a magnetic bearing of 210 degrees. Multiple large trees were observed with broken branches and major impact marks on their trunks. The crankcase had a 3-inch diameter hole in it above cylinder number 3. Examination of the engine found that the crankshaft fractured and separated at the rear of the number 4 cheek. The fracture was at the forward radius of the number 2 main bearing journal. Smeared metal was on the fracture surfaces. A metallurgical examination determined that a large portion of the fracture surface exhibited smooth crack arrest markings typical of fatigue propagation. Failure of the crankshaft was caused by a fatigue crack in the cheek between the number 3 rod journal and the number 2 main bearing journal. The fracture of the crankshaft caused the additional damage to the engine, including the separation of the numbers 3 and 4 connecting rods from their respective journals, and would have led to a complete loss of engine power. The origin of the fatigue fracture was in the transition between the number 2 main bearing journal surface and the forward fillet radius, approximately 0.036 inches below the surface of the journal. No metallurgical anomalies or manufacturing process errors were found to explain the fatigue initiation. This failure is very similar to a number of others investigated by the Safety Board's Materials Laboratory in the past, with a fatigue crack initiating just below the hardened case layer. As with many of those previous events, there were no material or microstructural defects that could be identified as the root cause of the fatigue initiation. The crankshaft met design material specifications.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
a catastrophic engine failure due to the fatigue fracture and failure of the crankshaft. A factor contributing to the accident was the unsuitable nature of the mountainous terrain for a successful forced landing. The precipitating cause of the fatigue fracture could not be determined.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/13/2002 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 1355 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | GROVELAND |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 95321 |
| Event Date Year | 2002 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 375021N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1195129W |
| 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 | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1353 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 245 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | MOD |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 97 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 55 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 27 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -1 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 330 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.06 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 1350 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 2 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 19361 |
| NTSB Notification Source | |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 13 2002 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1604 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 28 2006 1:55PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | FAA-FAT-Flight Standards District Office |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N761LX |
| NTSB Number | LAX02FA163 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | Ground |
| Aircraft Explosion | Ground |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | T210M |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 21062351 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3600 |
| 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 | Jul 1 2001 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 23 |
| Airframe Hours | 1920 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | R. P. WEDDELL & SONS |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | CARSON CITY |
| Aircraft Owner State | NV |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 89706 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| 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? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| 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 | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | FUL |
| Departure City | FULLERTON |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1130 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | CXP |
| Destination City | CARSON CITY |
| Destination State | NV |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 31 2005 1:26PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | NA |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |