CEN19LA244

The pilot reported that he had been conducting an aerial application flight for a few hours and returned to the airport to reload. While one loader was loading, another loader used a forklift to tilt the fuel tank so that fuel would flow toward the suction hose on the tank. The airplane was fueled with about 100 gallons of fuel. Once loading was complete, the pilot departed. He reported that the takeoff was normal until about 1/4 mile past the end of the airstrip; the airplane then lost engine power, which resulted a forced landing and substantial damage to the fuselage and right wing. He reported that the airplane had been functioning normally up until that time. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed a large quantity of water contamination in the fuel system components. No other preimpact anomalies were detected. Based on the available evidence, it is likely that ground personnel’s use of the forklift to tilt the fuel tank allowed water that had settled in the bottom of the tank to be drawn into the suction hose, thereby contaminating the fuel being delivered to the airplane. The resulting contamination of the airplane's fuel supply was significant enough to result in the loss of engine power.

On July 24, 2019, about 1105 central daylight time, an Air Tractor AT-602 airplane, N50634, impacted terrain during a forced landing near Walls, Mississippi. The pilot was not injured, and the airplane sustained substantial damage.The fuselage and right wing. The aircraft was registered to and operated by Delta Dusters II LLC. under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 as an aerial application flight. The pilot reported that he had been applying fungicide for a few hours and came back to the airport for another load. While one loader was loading, another loader was using a forklift to tilt the fuel tank so that fuel would flow toward the suction hose on the tank. The airplane was fueled with about 100 gallons of fuel. Once loading was complete, the pilot departed. He reported that the takeoff was normal until about ¼ mile past the end of the airstrip when there was a loss of engine power which resulted in the forced landing. He reported that the airplane had been functioning normally up until that time. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the fuselage and right wing. A large quantity of water contamination in the fuel system components was documented. No other preimpact anomalies were detected.