FTW03LA133 · Air Tractor AT-402B
Air Tractor AT-402B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Taft, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03LA133
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Air Tractor AT-402B
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-402
- 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
- N6078W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taft, TXTo 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
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system, line › Leak
- Unknown › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff/initial climb from the private airstrip, the engine "power reduced to 70 percent." The pilot turned into the wind for the forced landing; however, ended up landing perpendicular to the furrows in a cultivated field. Visual inspection of the engine by the FAA inspector revealed that the fuel transfer tube migrated out of the fuel adapter resulting in fuel leak and power loss, the "O" ring was protruding from the fuel adapter, and the lock plate at the #5 adapter was found bent and distorted. Fuel leakage at the fuel transfer tube was confirmed by running the engine and observing the leaking fuel. The engine did not develop power above 72 percent Ng. The fuel transfer tube was secured in its proper position, and the engine developed full power. A review of the maintenance records by the FAA inspector revealed that the nozzles had accumulated 111 hours time in service, and the maintenance entry for the last annual/100 hour inspection did not reveal any leaks or discrepancies.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power resulting from a leaking fuel transfer tube following inadequate maintenance by unknown personnel. A contributing factor was the furrowed terrain encountered during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03LA133
- Event ID
- 20030421X00533
- Case number
- FTW03LA133
- 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, coordinates. 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: c54a6cccc094b06afb728e87d901863cdb1a8fc693e7c97b21a23e8b9ad8d6f1; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:23:47.950Z.