Fort Gains Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Fort Gains, Georgia 31751
Tuesady, December 1, 1998 16:00 EST

The flight was loaded with fertilizer and had taken off, when the engine lost power. The pilot made a forced landing, and the airplane's landing gear went into a ditch and separated. The pilot had made 3 previous takeoffs under similar load conditions without incident. The pilot said, 'initially during the takeoff roll the aircraft accelerated normally.' However, immediately after breaking ground, during the initial climbout, the engine began to loose power, and the aircraft began to loose lift. The airplane continued to sink with partial power until impact. Examination of the engine revealed no exterior damage. The engine teardown revealed that improper atomization of the fuel resulted in a non-atomized fuel stream at the first-stage turbine rotor. The subsequent atomization and ignition of this fuel resulted in a localized area of increased temperature and non-uniform thermal damage to the second- and third-stage turbine stators. The localized area of increased temperature resulted in thermal damage to the second- and third-stage turbine rotors, and increased second- and third-stage turbine rotor blade tip clearance, rendering the engine incapable of producing full power. There was no evidence that the engine control system components contributed to the loss of engine power reported during the accident flight.

a power loss due to internal damage to the second- and third- stage turbine rotor blades, due to thermal heat, rendering the engine incapable of producing full power, resulting in a forced landing, and subsequent impact with the terrain.