Grumman G-164A accident near Hopewell Township, New Jersey, July 2, 2022

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The pilot was performing an aerial application flight over a nursery. As he pulled up at the end of a pass, he crossed over an area of trees and heard a “loud bang.” He attempted to maneuver the airplane to land in an open field; however, the airplane “ran out of altitude and airspeed” and impacted the ground, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. Postaccident examination of the airplane’s vintage radial engine revealed that when rotating the propeller, the drivetrain would rotate freely, and no binding was noted. All the engine cylinders were intact. The supercharger impeller was intact, but further examination revealed that it was not rotating when the propeller was moved by hand. The rear accessory/diffuser housing was removed to expose the supercharger impeller and no damage was noted on the external impeller blades; however, the rear splined impeller shaft ball bearing spacer and supercharger impeller splines were found to have sheared, allowing the impeller to freewheel. Based on this information, it is likely that the failure of the supercharger resulted in at least a partial loss of engine power, and that the failure occurred while the pilot was performing a low altitude maneuver. The pilot was subsequently unable to recover from the resulting loss of airspeed before the airplane impacted the ground.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.

Photographs from the investigation 3 pictures from the NTSB's docket, as the NTSB released them

Photograph 1 Postaccident view of wreckagePhotograph 2 – Postaccident view of wreckagePhotograph 3 – Postaccident view of wreckage

The NTSB's photographs with the NTSB's captions, at screen size. Open a picture to see it full size or to report one that should not be shown.