FTW95LA288 · WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From 4M3 to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA288
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- 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
- N4609P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4M3To not recorded
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, static
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Pull-up, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the 4th swath run of an aerial application flight, the flightpath of the airplane was directly in line with a grain elevator that was near the edge of the field. The pilot initiated a pull-up to clear the elevator; however, the airplane struck the ridge line of the dryer roof on the elevator building. The airplane then went into an uncontrolled descent and impacted a lightning wire and a concrete building. Also, a person on the ground was struck by a brick and received minor injuries. A pathology report of the pilot indicated that he was flying with 'lesions that had an appearance consistent with healing burns.' Toxicology tests of the pilot's blood showed 0.087 mcg/ml Norpropoxyphene, and 0.638 mcg/ml Butalbital (pain medications). Tests of his urine showed 0.787 mcg/ml Norpropoxyphene, 0.394 mcg/ml Butalbital, and 81.1 mcg/ml Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Also, Chlorpheniramine (antihistamine) and Pseudoephedrine (decongestant) were detected in his blood; and Chlorpheniramine, Pseudoephedrine, Ephedrine (decongestant) and Phenylpropanolamine (antihistamine) were detected in his urine. According to an FAA toxicologist, each medication was below a therapeutic level; however, their combined effects would have been additive and may have caused impairment of the pilot. The pain medications and antihistamines are not approved for use while flying.
Probable cause
The pilot delayed pull-up from a swath run and failed to maintain clearance from the obstruction (grain elevator). A factor relating to the accident was: the pilot's use of medications that were not approved for use while flying.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA288
- Event ID
- 20001207X03948
- Case number
- FTW95LA288
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 28c3e16ee3ee5018ea07a9ae99fdcbcb1ec58a5daaeb48c444c7d4e674a60765; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:42:16.191Z.