LAX02FA163

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.

History of flight

On May 13, 2002, at 1355 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna T210M, N761LX, collided with trees during a forced landing in mountainous terrain near Groveland, California. The forced landing was precipitated by a catastrophic engine failure in cruise. The owner was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The airline transport pilot and one passenger sustained fatal injuries. The airplane was destroyed by the collision sequence and post crash fire. The personal cross-country flight departed Fullerton, California, about 1130, en route to the airplane's home base in Carson City, Nevada. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed. The primary wreckage was at 37 degrees 50.358 minutes north latitude and 119 degrees 51.484 minutes west longitude at an estimated elevation of 4,595 feet.

The airplane became the subject of an alert notice (ALNOT) when Oakland (ZOA) Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) lost radar and radio contact at 1356. ZOA lost contact 50 miles northeast of Linden, California, at 12,500 feet.

Local authorities responded about 1430 to a report of a fire, and discovered the airplane's wreckage.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge (IIC) reviewed recorded radio transmissions by the pilot and air traffic control. The IIC converted all times to Pacific daylight time.

The pilot contacted Oakland Center at 1311, and reported level at 12,500 feet en route to Carson City. The pilot made a couple of frequency changes as the airplane changed radar sectors. At 1354, the pilot reported level at 12,500 feet, and several transmission exchanges followed. The last transmission was at 1355:16. The pilot verified that he was proceeding to Carson City via Placerville, California, and then would cut across the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe, California.

At 1356:35, the controller tried to inform the pilot that he had lost radar contact, but received no reply. After several attempts, the controller asked an airliner in the vicinity to try and contact the pilot; there was no response.

A review of a plot of recorded radar data provided by the airframe manufacturer showed a target that departed Fullerton at 1217:41. The target proceeded in a northerly direction, and climbed to a mode C reported altitude of 12,500 feet. It reached 12,500 feet near Palmdale, California. The target maintained that altitude on a relatively straight track. The last target was at 1355:21, at a mode C altitude of 12,500 feet. The coordinates were 37 degrees 51 minutes 15 seconds north latitude and 119 degrees 49 minutes 10 seconds west longitude. The plot showed a primary target at 1355:40, at 37 degrees 52 minutes 01 seconds north latitude and 119 degrees 49 minutes 09 seconds west longitude.

Personnel information

A review of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airman records revealed that the pilot held an airline transport pilot certificate with an airplane multiengine land rating, and a commercial pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land rating. The pilot held a second-class medical certificate issued on April 30, 2001; it had no limitations or waivers.

The Safety Board IIC was unable to locate personal flight records for the pilot. The IIC obtained the aeronautical experience listed in this report from a review of the FAA airmen medical records on file in the Airman and Medical Records Center located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The pilot reported on his medical application that he had a total time of 7,200 hours with 300 hours logged in the last 6 months.

Aircraft information

The airplane was a Cessna T210M, serial number 21062351. A maintenance shop had recently completed a pitot/static transponder check on the airplane. They routinely placed the logbooks in the airplane following any work. The owner could not find the logbooks, and assumed that they were still in the airplane.

The owner stated that he owned the airplane for 12 to 14 years. When he purchased the airplane, it had 710 hours on it. Shortly after his purchase, he had one or two cylinders top overhauled. His company flew the airplane about 500 hours before they had camshaft problems and overhauled the engine. Therefore, he estimated that the airframe and engine had about 1,200 hours at the time of engine overhaul. He had work done on one or two cylinders about 200 hours prior to the accident. He estimated that the airframe had about 1,920 hours total time.

The maintenance shop provided work orders for the airframe. The shop completed an annual inspection on July 16, 2001. Total time on the airframe was 1,841 hours. The last work order indicated that they removed and sent the transponder and encoding altimeter to other shops for bench testing. Upon the units' return, the shop installed them in the airplane and completed a pitot/static and transponder test. On April 18, 2002, they noted a total time of 1,897 hours.

The engine was a Teledyne Continental Motors TSIO-520R, serial number 512516.

Meteorological information

A routine aviation weather report (METAR) for Modesto, California (240 degrees at 55 miles), was issued at 1353. It stated: skies clear; visibility 10 miles; winds from 330 degrees at 13 knots; temperature 81 degrees Fahrenheit; dew point 31 degrees Fahrenheit; altimeter 30.06 inches of mercury.

Communications

The airplane had established radio contact with Oakland Center, and was on frequency 126.85.

Wreckage and impact information

The Safety Board IIC and representatives from the FAA, Cessna Aircraft Company, and Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) examined the wreckage on scene.

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. The airplane came to rest about 245 feet from the first identified point of contact (FIPC), which was a 4-inch diameter tree with the trunk broken about 10 feet above the ground. All measurements in this section are looking from the FIPC along the debris path centerline and left or right of the centerline. The coordinates for the FIPC were 37 degrees 50.388 minutes north latitude and 119 degrees 51.449 minutes west longitude at an estimated altitude of 4,550 feet.

Ten feet right of the FIPC was a 15-foot-tall tree that did not have any scrape marks or broken branches. Thirty-six feet from the FIPC and 14 feet left, was a 100-foot-tall tree with scarred branches about 30 feet up from its base. At 144 feet and 14 feet left, was another 100-foot-tall tree with a 2-foot diameter trunk. About 25 feet up the trunk was a round 2-foot scarred area that had no bark covering about 20 percent of the tree's circumference. Thirty-two feet left of this tree was a piece of aluminum skin whose fracture surfaces mated to the fracture surfaces of the left wing.

The inverted left wing, which separated, was 177 feet from the FIPC on the centerline of the debris path. The left wing exhibited cylindrical crush damage that was about 2 feet in diameter. A piece of red lens remained in its fitting on the left wing tip, and shards of red lens were within 10 feet of the wing.

The tree line began about 190 feet from the FIPC. Numerous trees in the debris path had broken limbs from 5 to 10 feet above ground level.

One flap section, which was about a foot long, was at 204 feet and 10 feet left, and another similar sized piece was at 213 feet and 3 feet left.

The left wing and pieces of the airplane that were not in burned areas were not oily, sooty, or scorched. Several Plexiglas shards that the airplane manufacturer's representative identified as windscreen components lay outside of the b