ERA22LA239 · Thrush S2R H80
Thrush S2R H80 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA22LA239
- 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
- 0
- 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 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
- N6216M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2017)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
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 reported that during the takeoff roll for the aerial application flight, the airplane used more runway than normal, and that after takeoff it “didn’t seem to produce power as usual.” He began a right turn and noticed “the power and airspeed [were] slowing.” He checked the gauges and noticed that that the fuel pressure was fluctuating, and then turned on the emergency fuel pump. He then jettisoned the chemical load, and the airplane continued to descend until it impacted trees. A postaccident examination of the airplane found that the electric main fuel pump did not operate. Disassembly of the pump’s electric motor revealed that the carbon brushes had completely worn away, with no brush material remaining in either of the two brush holders. Examination of the engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Given that the pilot reported a longer than usual takeoff roll and a reduction in engine power throughout the flight, the pump may not have been operating properly or at all before takeoff. The reduction in power may have been due to the engine operating on only its internal fuel pump. The pilot did not report that the condition improved after he activated the emergency fuel pump. Whether or not the emergency pump had no effect or there was insufficient time to recover before the airplane struck trees could not be determined.
Probable cause
A failure of the electric main fuel pump due to the carbon brushes having completely worn away.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA22LA239
- Event ID
- 20220525105129
- Case number
- ERA22LA239
- 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, coordinates, 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: 923f302e99140d6829614ff4f97de6fda6ef8adb585984a08dc608c795814d5f; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:15:15.926Z.