NTSB Factual Report

On August 27, 2014, about 1045 central daylight time, a Cessna 310K, twin-engine airplane, N101JB, lost engine power shortly after takeoff from the El Dorado/Captain Jack Thomas Memorial Airport, (KEQA), El Dorado, Kansas. The airline transport rated pilot and sole passenger were not injured. The airplane was substantially damaged during the forced landing. The airplane was registered to and operated by Lakepoint Aviation II, LLC, Augusta, Kansas, under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a proficiency flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed.

The flight was planned as part of the FAA's (Federal Aviation Administration) proficiency program for inspectors. The pilot reported that they did a normal preflight and run-up, before departing from the Colonel James Jabara Airport (KAAO), Wichita, Kansas. They then flew to KEQA, to do some touch-and-goes. The pilot reported that as he approached the airport he was slightly high, so he selected full flaps and had the propeller levers full forward. The pilot added that he re-established the glidepath and landed on the first 500 feet of the runway. He asked the passenger to retract the flaps and he added power for the takeoff. The passenger called "flaps up" as they continued the takeoff roll. Shortly thereafter, the airplane started to track left of centerline, the pilot applied right rudder to correct the drift and then checked his engine instruments. The left engine was not producing power. With the airplane at 110-112 mph, full power on the right engine, and partial power on the left engine, the pilot elected to continue the takeoff. After getting airborne, the pilot made a slight left turn to avoid a set of trees. He added that it was apparent that the airplane was not accelerating nor climbing, so he reduced power for a forced landing in a field.

During the landing, the right main gear and nose wheel landing collapsed, and airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing. Examination of the airplane revealed that the left engine's throttle cable had separated; both left and right engine throttle cables were removed for examination.

The NTSB, FAA, and technical representatives from Cessna Aircraft Company met at the company's engineering facility in Wichita, Kansas to examine the throttle cables.

The airplane's original maintenance records were lost/not provided to Lakepoint Aviation, so new logs were generated and the previous maintenance history was unknown. Since there were no previous maintenance records, the time/hours on the throttle cable was not determined.

The examination of the broken cable revealed that the individual wire cable strands showed facture surfaces consistent with fatigue and ductile overload. Additionally, the swivel connection end of the cable had a shallow circumferential swage. The shallow swage meant that the ball connection on the swivel connection tube, allowed the tube to slide out of the swaged connection. As a result, during throttle movement, the cable strands would be subject to bending (fatigue) loads.

The examination was unable to determine if the (shallow) swage on the broken cable was the result of improper manufacturing, or deterioration of the joint over years/hours of service.

NTSB Probable Cause

A fatigue failure of the left engine’s throttle cable, which resulted in the loss of left engine power.