CHI97LA278 · Schweizer G-164B
Schweizer G-164B · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Rolla Downtown Airport (RLA) to Rolla Downtown Airport (RLA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97LA278
- 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
Schweizer G-164B
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer G-164
- 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
- N8326K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rolla Downtown Airport (RLA)To Rolla Downtown Airport (RLA)
- 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, transmission
- 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 › Maneuver, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane, which was applying a herbicide on a field, flew under high tension lines about 200 yards from the field's boundary. It then began a climbing 180-degree turn in preparation for its final swath run. The airplane collided with the electrical wires and impacted the earth a short time later. The pilot was seriously injured by the collision forces and postimpact fire. However, the pilot succumbed to paraquat poisoning 8 days after the accident. Paraquat is the active ingredient in Gramoxone Extra. According to the Material Data Safety Sheets and the manufacturer's product label, paraquat adversely affects the respiratory system and eventually leads to death by respiratory failure.
Probable cause
the pilot delaying the swath run turnaround maneuver at the end of the field boundary, and his failure to maintain clearance between the airplane and the high tension wires. A factor was the pilot's inattentiveness regarding the time to begin the swath run turnaround maneuver.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97LA278
- Event ID
- 20001208X08805
- Case number
- CHI97LA278
- 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: 14a9c3bbb0e88bc05c7c6812c30e2c1ab651d0452d8eb7716b46639d74eb6789; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:50:29.781Z.