LAX94LA268 · Rockwell S2-R
Tri Air Rockwell S2-R · Accident: fire while maneuvering
From Q49 to Q49
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA268
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Rockwell S2-R
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell S2
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N4230X
- Operator
- Tri Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q49To Q49
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 137: Agricultural
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Fire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aerial application materials › Fire
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation(other toxic)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS LOADED WITH 2,000 POUNDS OF POWDERED SULFUR. A WITNESS SAID THE AIRPLANE HAD JUST COMPLETED A SPRAY RUN, AND BEGAN A LEFT TURN TO MAKE WHAT THE WITNESS ASSUMED WAS A SOUTHBOUND RUN ON THE FIELD. FLAMES WERE SEEN ON THE BOTTOM OF THE AIRPLANE IN THE VICINITY OF THE DISPENSER APPARATUS. THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED A LITTLE, STARTED TO CLIMB AGAIN, THEN SUDDENLY NOSED OVER AND DOVE VERTICALLY INTO THE GROUND. INFLIGHT AND POSTCRASH FIRE HAD TOTALLY CONSUMED ALL OF THE NON-STEEL AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS, AND THE FIRE SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN MORE INTENSE IN THE AREA OF THE CHEMICAL HOPPER AND SPRAY APPARATUS. THE CHEMICAL MANUFACTURER SAID THE POWDERED SULFUR DUST USED IN AG OPERATIONS IS A MODERATE FIRE HAZARD ACCORDING TO NFPA CRITERIA. THE COMPOUND HAS A FLASH POINT OF 374 DEG F, YET STUDIES SHOW THAT CLOUDS OF DUST MAY IGNITE AT IGNITION TEMPS OF 190 DEG IN DENSITY LIMITS OF LESS THAN 0.1 OUNCES PER CUBIC FOOT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL AS A RESULT OF INCAPACITATION FROM AN IN-FLIGHT SULFUR FIRE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA268
- Event ID
- 20001206X01583
- Case number
- LAX94LA268
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-06-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2149c011a319ea0c5591cf698d09b261c9387ed975ba6e923d7e0b7948451dc0; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:06:03.460Z.