ATL04CA191 · Pinkham Challenger II
Pinkham Challenger II · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Jaars Townsend Airport (N52) to Kirk Air Base (T73)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04CA191
- 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
Pinkham Challenger II
- Aircraft type
- Pinkham CHALLENGER
- 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
- N2079S
- Operator
- Lewis I.Pinkham
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jaars Townsend Airport (N52), Waxhaw, NCTo Kirk Air Base (T73), Lancaster, SC
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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)
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Contamination, water
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
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 stated he was at the 2,000 feet, 3 miles north of Lancaster, South Carolina, when the engine had a partial loss of engine power. The engine rpm decreased to 3,800 rpm. The pilot turned on the auxiliary boost pump, the rpm increased, and decreased back to 3,800 rpm. The pilot pulled the choke out, the rpm increased, and decreased back to 3,800 rpm. The pilot stated, "I suspected fuel was not getting through the fuel line." The pilot made an emergency landing into a small field. The pilot stated, 'I misjudged my altitude during the approach and the right wing collided with a tree. The airplane turned to the right, the nose pitched down, and the airplane collided with the ground." Examination of the fuel system revealed the fuel tank was not ruptured. Water was present in the fuel filter and fuel supply line going from the main fuel tank to the engine. The fuel tank had a 5/16 inch hole drilled in the top of the main fuel tank covered by a piece of tape that was no longer sealing the hole. The tank contained 8 gallons of dark greenish looking fuel. "The fuel appeared to be a mixture of auto gas and avgas." The main fuel tank was removed and drained. Water was present in the fuel tank. The fuel tank had a low point bowl molded into it for water collection, however, there was no drain installed in order to sump the fuel tank. An examination of the kit instructions for the airplane showed the drawings indicated that a fuel sump drain was to be installed in the low point of the main fuel tank. The pilot and manufacturer stated he did not want to cut a hole in the bottom of the fuselage in the fabric to accommodate a drain.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power in-flight due to water ingestion and his misjudgment of obstacle clearance resulting in a collision with trees and the ground. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to follow the manufactures instructions for installing a sump drain in the fuel system during construction of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04CA191
- Event ID
- 20041008X01605
- Case number
- ATL04CA191
- 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: 41171124a24cf328c709634f6102606981e96c8e1317b46c58952cea4724f285; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:12:47.394Z.