DEN08LA150 · Weatherly 620B
Quality Air Applicators Weatherly 620B · Accident: fuel contamination while maneuvering
From O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL) to O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08LA150
- 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
Weatherly 620B
- Aircraft type
- Weatherly 620
- 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
- N2036U
- Operator
- Quality Air Applicators
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL), O'Neill Municip, NETo O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL), O'Neill Municip, NE
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was performing an aerial application pass when the engine suddenly stopped running. The pilot landed the airplane in a field and the airplane nosed over during the landing, bending the engine firewall and substantially damaging both wings. The pilot was uninjured. The engine had two cracked cylinders and had been stored outside and exposed to weather elements prior to being inspected. Inspection of the carburetor revealed corrosion consistent with water exposure on internal components, including the finger filter. Inspection of the fuel pump inlet fitting showed evidence of rust on the blades and inlet portion of the fitting. The inlet fuel fitting was present and the inlet fuel line was completely separated at the inlet fitting. The rotor assembly was removed and there was evidence of water damage, rust deposits in the pump interior, liner, lower journal, and bearing. The rust deposits were excessive and impeded proper functioning.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power due to water contamination and corrosion within the fuel system at an undetermined time and from an undetermined source.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08LA150
- Event ID
- 20080915X01463
- Case number
- DEN08LA150
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, cause areas. 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: 67aa46bde5105855417dc45c95c9f5f988f4ecd16ab591e86c122e1e914f5721; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:13:06.225Z.