FTW96LA332 · Ayres S2R-G5
Ayres S2R-G5 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From No airport to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA332
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Ayres S2R-G5
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N20GH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 137: Agricultural
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Lubricating system, oil line › Chafed
- Lubricating system, oil line › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, the engine began to lose power during the takeoff roll. He said he was 'past the stopping point' and was 'able to get the airplane to fly about 1/2 mile before the engine shut down completely.' A forced landing to a cotton field was initiated. After the aircraft came to a stop, it was consumed by a postimpact fire. A teardown of the Garrett TPE-331 turbine engine was performed. Examination revealed that the turbine scavenge pump oil supply line shield assembly had separated and worn through the oil supply line it surrounded. The engine oil filter was removed, and no oil was found in the oil filter housing. One pint of oil was drained from the engine oil tank. Visual inspection of the propeller revealed that it was in the feather position. Regarding the Garrett TPE-331 engine, if oil pressure is lost, the propeller will automatically go to the feather position, even if the engine continues to run. A witness stated that during the previous flight, smoke was observed coming from the exhaust area of the engine. Also, the pilot had reported problems with the airplane's engine.
Probable cause
a leak in the turbine scavenge pump oil supply line, due to chafing of its separated shield assembly, which resulted in an oil leak, oil starvation, and activation of the propeller feathering system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA332
- Event ID
- 20001208X06488
- Case number
- FTW96LA332
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d071a27ad783458b418a715ba9bcf9d33fb91cec21104f0d8fcb3fa4e92cc000; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:35:38.316Z.