Air Tractor AT-402A N90772

Summary

On 12 January 2005 at about 20:00 local time, a Air Tractor AT-402A registered N90772 was involved in an accident near Bainbridge, Georgia, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

12 January 2005 at 20:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Bainbridge, Georgia, United States

Nearest airport

Brock Airpark (83GA)

Coordinates

30.9000, -84.5833

Aircraft

Air Tractor AT-402A

Registration

N90772

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 137: Agricultural

Purpose of flight

Aerial Application

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bainbridge → Bainbridge

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ATL05LA046

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot's inadequate management of the fuel supply, which resulted in fuel starvation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

On the day of the accident, the pilot operated the airplane in eight or nine flights, each lasting approximately 45 minutes in duration. The pilot refueled the airplane from a refueling tank kept at his private airstrip before the first flight of the day. On the last flight of the day, after spraying a field, the pilot noticed a gradual loss of engine power and the airplane began to lose altitude. The airplane collided with trees and the ground 1/2 mile from the approach end of runway 36. Post-accident examination of the turbine engine and the fuel control unit revealed no abnormalities. The right wing fuel tank contained approximately six gallons of Jet-A straw colored fuel and the left wing fuel tank contained approximately one quart of water. The inner web of both left and right tanks were punctured. There was no fuel recovered from the header tank and the fuel filter had fuel located in the bowl. The engine fuel filter appeared dirty and fuel in the bowl appeared discolored. The fuel last chance filter appeared clean with a small amount of fine particles in the engine bowl. The AT-402A has a fuel capacity of 167 gallons of usable fuel and three gallons of unusable fuel.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.