WPR22LA090 · Textron Aviation TTX Inc. T240
SarkAir Textron Aviation TTX Inc. T240 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Spalding Airport (1Q2)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22LA090
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Textron Aviation TTX Inc. T240
- Aircraft type
- Textron TTX INC T240
- 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
- N420WT
- Operator
- SarkAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Spalding Airport (1Q2), Susanville, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 6 years (built 2016)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 (partial)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instructor pilot reported that during takeoff about 100 ft above ground level (agl) and near the end of the runway, the engine sustained a sudden loss of engine power. The pilot lowered the nose and extended the flaps for the off-airport forced landing. The airplane impacted the snow-covered terrain. Postaccident examination of the airplane indicated that the right induction tube connecting the turbocharger compressor outlet to the intercooler inlet had separated from the turbocharger compressor outlet flange. Two inches of the induction tube was installed into the 3-inch-long rubber coupling, leaving only 1 inch remaining to be installed on the turbocharger compressor outlet flange. It is likely that when the engine was at high RPM during the takeoff climb, the improperly installed lower rubber coupling separated from the turbocharger compressor outlet flange, resulting in the loss of engine power. The engine was installed on an engine test stand and it ran successfully at various RPM settings. The engine test run revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Maintenance records indicated that the last 100-hour inspection was performed two days before the accident. During this inspection the induction tubes would have been removed and inspected.
Probable cause
The inadequate maintenance and inspection of the engine induction system, which resulted in the separation of the right induction tube from the turbocharger compressor outlet and the subsequent loss of engine power during departure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22LA090
- Event ID
- 20220131104575
- Case number
- WPR22LA090
- 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: 27cf52bd4b5d1b8d483836d2ca9d6704e6d8475e052d9b85e74ac354558e1364; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:55:21.675Z.