Cessna Deleted The Only Inspection That Finds This Crack. In 2011. Your 210 Still Flies Without It.

In 1992 Cessna's own cyclic testing cracked the lower lugs of the Cessna 210 wing carry-through spar. The company responded with Continued Airworthiness Program inspection 57-10-08: visual plus eddy current, scheduled on flight hours. An aeroplane flying low-level survey work got a probe on that spar every 400 hours. In 2011, after reviewing historical data and finding no field history of carry-through cracking, Cessna withdrew it. The replacement — Supplemental Inspection Document 53-11-01 — is visual only and calendar-based, ten years then every three, with no distinction between a survey aircraft and a trainer. For privately operated aeroplanes, SID compliance is voluntary. On 26 May 2019 a Cessna T210M flying a survey near Mount Isa, Queensland lost its right wing at 193 feet and 147 knots. Both occupants were killed. It had passed its SID 53-11-01 inspection eighteen months and 1,746.4 flight hours earlier, no defects identified. The crack had initiated on the underside of the lower flange — the surface a visual inspection cannot see — and had taken 38 per cent of the flange in tension. Twenty-nine days later Textron reinstated the eddy current inspection in Service Letter SEL-57-06. The FAA followed with AD 2020-03-16 and AD 2023-02-17, reaching roughly 4,941 US-registered aircraft. Of the first 211 Cardinal reports, 120 showed corrosion. This video walks the record: what the 400-hour interval was for, what the 2011 review concluded, and why the FAA still calls its own directive interim action. Chapters: 00:00 A wing comes off at 193 feet 02:00 The beam that makes two wings one aeroplane 04:20 Cessna cracks its own spar on a test rig 06:45 Four hundred hours 08:40 2011: the inspection is withdrawn 11:00 A SID is not law 13:00 VH-SUX and the inspection that passed 16:20 Four inspections that never happened 19:00 Forty-two millimetres 21:30 Twenty-nine days 24:00 What the fleet reported 26:10 Thirty-five thousand dollars 27:40 The bet nobody reads References: In-flight break-up involving Cessna T210M, VH-SUX. ATSB AO-2019-026. https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/... AO-2019-026 final report PDF. ATSB. https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default... Fatigue fracture. ATSB, Nov 2021. https://www.atsb.gov.au/news/2022/fat... ATSB urges Textron to address structural concern. Australian Aviation, Nov 2021. https://australianaviation.com.au/202... AD 2023-02-17. Federal Register, 13 Feb 2023. https://www.federalregister.gov/docum... AD 2020-03-16. Federal Register, 21 Feb 2020. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/F... Service Letter SEL-57-06, Carry-Thru Spar One-Time Eddy Current Inspection. Textron, 24 Jun 2019. https://download.aopa.org/advocacy/20... AWB 02-048, Compliance with Cessna SIDs. CASA, 4 May 2022. https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/default... AWB 53-011, Cessna 210 and 177 Wing Carry-through Spar. CASA. https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft/airw... Spar inspection results raise FAA concern. AOPA, 16 Feb 2023. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/a... AOPA pushes back on Cessna 210 AD. AOPA, 8 Apr 2020. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/a... Cessna 210 owners weigh compliance options. AOPA, 11 Mar 2020. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/a... Carry-Thru Spar Eddy Current Inspection. Cessna Owner Organization. https://cessnaowner.org/carry-thru-sp... Cessna 210J Carry Thru Spar Replacement. Stew's Aero. https://stewsaero.com/cessna-210j-car... SAIB, Cessna 177 and 210 Airplanes. FAA, Jul 2019. https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac...