SEA03LA152 · Rockwell S-2R
Rockwell S-2R · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Hermiston Municipal Airport (HRI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA152
- 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
Rockwell S-2R
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell S-2
- 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
- N4250X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hermiston Municipal Airport (HRI), Hermiston, ORTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he took off for the aerial application flight with an estimated one hour to one hour and twenty minutes of fuel remaining in the fuel tanks. The pilot utilizes a stop watch to keep track of the time to calculate fuel consumption. While returning to the airport for landing, the engine lost power about one mile short of the runway. Unable to reach the runway, the pilot maneuvered for a forced landing to a field. During the landing roll on rough terrain, the aircraft collided with a rock that damaged the main landing gear and spray boom. The wing sustained substantial damage to ribs and the spar. After the accident, the pilot noted that one hour and three minutes had elapsed. During the post-accident inspection of the aircraft, it was noted that the wing fuel tanks were empty of fuel. The header tank contained a small amount of fuel. After wreckage recovery, fuel was supplied to the system. The boost pumps were activated and fuel pressure was noted. The engine was then started and ran for a few minutes with no anomalies noted before it was shut down.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate in-flight decision by failing to refuel, resulting in fuel exhaustion and the loss of power. Rocky terrain was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA152
- Event ID
- 20030728X01202
- Case number
- SEA03LA152
- 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: 463dedf3701cbfeec0e17855973e6b2d946948d1c4612a1b5e604ce3535cc588; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:55:58.077Z.