MIA03LA183 · Air Tractor AT-502
Air Tractor AT-502 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Southeastern Airport (FD30) to Southeastern Airport (FD30)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03LA183
- 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-502
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-502
- 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
- N1528T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southeastern Airport (FD30), Fort Pierce, FLTo Southeastern Airport (FD30)
- 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
- 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
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Corroded
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Fatigue
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 aborted the takeoff when heard a loud explosion shortly after lift off. The airplane overran the runway, and collided with trees. The examination of the aircraft revealed the compressor turbine disk exhibited two blades fractured near the platform, the remaining blades exhibiting severe impact damage. Fatigue was observed on the fracture surfaces of the two blades which had fractured near the platform. Corrosion was observed on the side of the compressor turbine blade platforms from these two fractured blades.. The corroded platform area of the compressor turbine blades contained foreign elements mostly composed of phosphate and lead oxide. The corrosion observed had caused a volume change which closed the required gap between blade platforms. According to Pratt and Whitney personnel this would have an adverse effect on the blade airfoils by altering the natural vibration frequency of the blades. Pratt and Whitney personnel concluded that the distress of the compressor turbine disk was initiated by the fracture of one blade in fatigue from multiple origins. The fatigue fracture of the compressor turbine blades likely resulted from a loss of gap between the blade and platforms as a result of the observed corrosion.
Probable cause
Failure of one blade in the engine compressor turbine disk due to fatigue which was caused by loss of gap between the blade platforms as a result of corrosion due to a foreign element (phosphate). This resulted in loss of engine power during takeoff and overrun of the runway and collision with trees during the subsequent aborted takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03LA183
- Event ID
- 20030924X01585
- Case number
- MIA03LA183
- 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: 31d4613b559411d99e01979263c856ccd889c75b3d5908b0857f046f22f85f99; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:31:19.546Z.