Air Tractor AT802 N759FA

Summary

On 21 August 2020 at about 19:30 local time, a Air Tractor AT802 registered N759FA, operated by Tesk Aviation Llc, was involved in an accident near Dell, Arkansas, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

21 August 2020 at 19:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Dell, Arkansas, United States

Coordinates

35.8577, -90.0404

Aircraft

Air Tractor AT802

Registration

N759FA

Category

Airplane

Year built

2018

Engines

1

Operator

Tesk Aviation Llc

Operating rule

Part 137: Agricultural

Purpose of flight

Aerial Application

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Dell → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN20LA357

1 person died.

The pilot’s failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and collision with terrain.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed on his fourth agricultural flight of the day to apply a fungicide agent to the crop. Two witnesses, who saw the airplane during the flight, indicated that the airplane made a steep turn, then lost altitude. Postaccident examination of the accident site revealed, the airplane impacted terrain in a steep attitude. The front of the airplane was heavily damaged, the wings were accordioned-crushed along the wingspan, and the engine was embedded in the ground. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any preimpact abnormalities that would have contributed to the accident. Nonvolatile memory was successfully downloaded from the airplane’s engine monitor. A review of the data noted that the accident flight was the 630th session and that no anomalies in the engine parameters were recorded before the end of the recording. The accident is consistent with an aerodynamic stall following a loss of airspeed while the pilot maneuvered at low altitude.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.