WPR22LA259 · SOCATA TB21
SOCATA TB21 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) en route
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22LA259
- 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
SOCATA TB21
- Aircraft type
- Socata TB21
- 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
- N718TB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 20 years (built 2002)
- 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
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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 power plant
- 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
According to the pilot, he had just picked up the airplane after an annual inspection. He conducted a pattern-only flight before departing for a cross-country flight to reposition the airplane. About 30 minutes after takeoff, there was a total loss of engine power and the pilot performed a forced landing on a road. The airplane struck a vehicle during landing, which separated the left wing from the fuselage. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed the mechanical fuel pump shaft had sheared. Further disassembly revealed rotational scoring, heat discoloration, and foreign (aluminum) debris on the pump’s rotor shaft and bearing bore. The scoring and heat discoloration were determined to have occurred due to friction occurring between the rotor shaft and bearing bore. Mechanical damage to the affected components did not allow for the determination of pre-event component measurements, including the rotor shaft or the bearing dimensions. The mechanical fuel pump was a recently rebuilt unit and was installed on the engine during the annual inspection that was completed five days before the accident. The overhaul procedures for the fuel pump specify the bearing to be honed and the rotor to be lubricated during reassembly. Honing to incorrect dimensions or improper lubrication would likely result in increased friction between the two components. Debris between the rotor and bearing could also increase friction. The rubber seal installed at the driven end of the rotor exhibited softening and deformation consistent with thermal distress, which could have allowed debris to enter the fuel pump after the pump began to overheat. Additionally, debris could have been introduced during the rebuild process or during the installation process through the fuel line ports and fittings, but due to the friction damage the source of the debris could not be identified. The fuel pump shaft sheared due to the friction between the rotor shaft and bearing bore; however, damage prevented determination of the source of the friction.
Probable cause
The failure of the mechanical fuel pump due to internal friction for reasons that could not be determined based on available evidence, which resulted in a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22LA259
- Event ID
- 20220718105509
- Case number
- WPR22LA259
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2022-07-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d9569bf8b5c63a5b769d4435a7c44efa54817e621e1e41addeeba3a859e4bb1c; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:28:11.547Z.