Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18A N6259N

Summary

On 16 March 2004 at about 16:35 local time, a Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18A registered N6259N, operated by U.S. Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, was involved in an accident near Safford, Arizona, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

16 March 2004 at 16:35

Classification

Accident

Location

Safford, Arizona, United States

Coordinates

32.8090, -109.3599

Aircraft

Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18A

Registration

N6259N

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

U.S. Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Land Management

Operating rule

Public Use

Purpose of flight

Public Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Safford Regl → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX04TA161

1 person died.

A loss of engine power due to fuel starvation and at least one ensuing engine power surge, which caused the airplane to pitch up abruptly into a stall at an altitude too low for recovery. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's mismanagement of the fuel supply, his failure to adhere to prescribed flight manual procedures for equalizing the fuel quantity distribution between the fuel tanks, and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed after the power loss.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The engine lost power while the pilot was turning the airplane onto the base leg of a simulated fire retardant drop pattern. Thereafter, the airplane stalled and collided with the ground while in an uncontrolled descent. The accident occurred during a public-use firefighting training flight supervised by the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). During the flight the pilot was practicing dropping fire retardant in a designated area on a simulated wildland fire. A witness reported hearing the engine surge several times, after which the airplane's bank increased and it descended. The airplane impacted the ground in a near-vertical, nose-down pitch attitude. The airframe and engine were examined and no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunction was found. The airplane was dispatched with adequate fuel for the planned flight. In the airplane's flight manual, the manufacturer provided guidance regarding equalizing unbalanced wing tank fuel quantity levels to avoid fuel starvation from unequal consumption of fuel in the tanks. During the accident investigation, no fuel was found in either the left wing or header tanks, which had retained their integrity. The right wing tank was found ruptured. The pilot operated valve that allows fuel to flow between the main fuel tanks to equalize the amount of fuel in each tank was found in the closed position. The airplane was not equipped with optional low-fuel warning lights in the cockpit. In addition, the examination determined that the AW-2-30 propeller certificated for the airplane had been replaced with the larger, unapproved AW-2 propeller and that the airplane’s propeller logbook did not reflect this change.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.