MIA95LA229 · Air Tractor AT-502
Air Tractor AT-502 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Lake Placid, FL (no airport) to Sebring Regional Airport (SEF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95LA229
- 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
Air Tractor AT-502
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-502
- 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
- N1529E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Placid, FL (no airport)To Sebring Regional Airport (SEF), Sebring, FL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE DEPARTURE AN EMPLOYEE WHO WAS FILLING THE HOPPER WHILE THE ENGINE WAS OPERATING OBSERVED THE FUEL GAUGE IN THE COCKPIT AND NOTED THAT IT INDICATED 1/4. HE ADVISED THE PILOT TO REFUEL AND THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WOULD SPRAY PART OF THE LOAD THEN FLY TO SEBRING TO REFUEL. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED TOWARD THE SPRAY LOCATION SOUTH OF LAKE ISTOKPOGA. A WITNESS IN A BOAT OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE DESCEND INTO THE WATER. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE WATER AND NOSED OVER COMING TO REST IN ABOUT 5 FEET OF WATER. THE PILOT DID NOT ESCAPE. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE WHILE PARTIALLY SUBMERGED REVEALED THAT THE FOUR PLACE SEAT RESTRAINT WAS UNLATCHED AND THE COCKPIT DOORS WERE OPEN. THE PILOT WAS NOT WEARING A HELMET. ACCORDING TO THE DIVER WHO RECOVERED THE PILOT'S BODY, VISIBILITY BENEATH THE SURFACE WAS POOR. DURING RECOVERY OF THE AIRPLANE THE FUEL TANKS WERE DRAINED USING THE SUMP DRAINS AND ABOUT 2 GALLONS OF FUEL AND WATER WERE RECOVERED.
Probable cause
MISMANAGEMENT OF THE FUEL BY THE PILOT RESULTING IN THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION, AND THE PILOT'S POOR DECISION TO FLY OVER WATER EN ROUTE TO THE REFUELING AIRPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95LA229
- Event ID
- 20001207X04551
- Case number
- MIA95LA229
- 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: d3f484175a183c8f52ff90c001e6378780633120fd51347da6881698f78ca6bb; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:36:31.197Z.