CHI93FA028 · Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
Crop View Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Bewani Airport (BWP) to 3SQ · Saint Charles, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA028
- 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N72AW
- Operator
- Crop View
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bewani Airport (BWP)To 3SQ · Saint Charles, MO
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE INITIAL GROUND RUN, THE RIGHT ENGINE SURGED, HOWEVER POWER WAS REGAINED AND THE TAKEOFF CONTINUED. DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB, THE RIGHT ENGINE SURGED AGAIN AND THE ELECTRIC FUEL BOOST PUMP WAS TURNED ON, BUT FUEL PRESSURE WOULD NOT STABILIZE. THE PILOT PERFORMED A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. WHILE TAXIING A PASSENGER NOTED A FIRE IN THE RIGHT ENGINE. THE PILOT SHUT DOWN BOTH ENGINES WITH THE MIXTURES, OPENED THE DOOR, AND HE AND HIS TWO PASSENGERS EVACUATED THE AIRPLANE. THE ENGINE FIRE CONTINUED, EVEN THOUGH AIRPORT PERSONNEL AND A LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT APPLIED FIRE SUPPRESSANT. THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED AFTER THE PILOT RETURNED TO THE AIRPLANE AND TURNED OFF THE MASTER SWITCH. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THAT THE FLEXIBLE FUEL LINE BETWEEN THE MECHANICAL FUEL PUMP AND THROTTLE CONTROL BODY WAS LOOSE AT THE FUEL PUMP END.
Probable cause
OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL'S IMPROPER MAINTENANCE (INSTALLATION).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA028
- Event ID
- 20001211X16006
- Case number
- CHI93FA028
- 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: 31ec10b469c84f63b7dbe4e6590c78e34d776bdcf62ef036ebaaaf8bd6fdd0ad; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:05:21.602Z.