CEN17LA176 · Thrush Aircraft Inc S2R-H80
Central Ag Air Thrush Aircraft Inc S2R-H80 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Marion Municipal Airport (43K) to Marion Municipal Airport (43K)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA176
- 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
Thrush Aircraft Inc S2R-H80
- Aircraft type
- Thrush S2
- 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
- N3045R
- Operator
- Central Ag Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marion Municipal Airport (43K), Marion, KSTo Marion Municipal Airport (43K), Marion, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2013)
- 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot stated that, after completing a portion of a low-level agricultural application flight, the engine power decreased "significantly." The pilot pushed the power lever full forward, but the engine did not respond. He made several more passes to get more weight off the airplane to see if the engine would regain power; however, engine power did not increase, so the pilot flew the airplane back toward the departure airport. The pilot tried to climb the airplane but there was insufficient power to do so, and he then saw smoke coming out both exhausts. The engine then lost all power. Subsequently, the pilot conducted a forced landing in a field, and the airplane slid through a fence and then stopped, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage.
A review of data downloaded from the engine monitor revealed engine operation consistent with a fuel interruption and a subsequent loss of engine power. During postaccident examination, the main electric fuel boost pump was found operational. However, it did not meet standard acceptance test criteria. The engine was not test run; however, component level testing of the fuel control unit, the emergency electric fuel pump, and the starting and limiting unit revealed no anomalies that would have prevented normal operation. Thus, the reason for the interruption in fuel flow and the subsequent loss of engine power could not be determined. However, the airplane manufacturer has subsequently developed a redesign and has issued a service bulletin to address the fuel system, including electric fuel pumps and plumbing.
The Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) contained a Failure of Automatic Fuel Scheduling checklist, and the first step of this checklist was to engage the emergency governor. The pilot reported that he did not follow these procedures when the engine power decreased. Further, the AFM contained an Engine Failure In-Flight checklist, and the first step of the checklist was to dump the hopper. The pilot reported that he did not dump the hopper when the engine lost power. The pilot's failure to subsequently follow the emergency procedures to recover engine power likely necessitated the forced landing.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during a low-altitude agricultural application flight for reasons that could not be determined during detailed examinations. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to follow the airplane manufacturer's emergency procedures to recover engine power, which resulted in a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA176
- Event ID
- 20170508X40936
- Case number
- CEN17LA176
- 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. 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: 5f660e850a56a2508fc1e513ddf72a162a6d5f32b1265c7aea3612b48a65f1e4; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:15:08.195Z.