Air Tractor AT 301

Full Narrative

On August 29, 2018, about 1323 central daylight time, an Air Tractor AT-301 airplane, N3164K, was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power near Partridge, Kansas. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by Ag Air Services Inc. as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight was not operated on a flight plan. The local flight originated from the Hutchison Regional Airport (HUT) about 1220.The pilot reported that he had been flying for about 1 hour and was returning to the airport when the engine lost power. The airplane was about 1,000 ft above ground level (agl) at the time. He noted that the engine regained power momentarily twice – for about 3 seconds each time – when he used the manual fuel pump. However, the airplane continued to lose altitude and he abandoned further restart attempts to focus on the forced landing. He attempted to land on a road, but he was unable to properly align the airplane's flight path with the remaining altitude. The airplane aerodynamically stalled about 20 ft agl, contacted the road, and bounced before coming to rest in an adjacent agricultural field. The airplane sustained damage to the left wing.

The operator recovered the airplane from the accident site. He stated that 29 gallons of fuel was drained from the airplane during recovery.

A postrecovery engine examination performed by Federal Aviation Administration inspectors did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preaccident failure or malfunction. The engine driven fuel pump was removed and tested. It operated normally when operated with an electric drill. The airframe fuel screens were intact and free of debris or sediment. The airplane was not equipped with an electric fuel pump. The only backup fuel pump was the manual pump.