CHI99FA267 · Air Tractor AT502B
Air Tractor AT502B · Accident: in flight collision with object
From Aurora Municipal Al Potter Field (AUH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI99FA267
- 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 AT502B
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT502
- 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
- N5008Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aurora Municipal Al Potter Field (AUH), Aurora, NETo 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Guy wire
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed when it impacted terrain near Giltner, Nebraska. The pilot was fatally injured. A neighbor found the airplane wreckage and telephoned 911. The sky condition was clear. The United States Naval Observatory altitude and azimuth of the sun in Giltner, Nebraska, were 24.8 degrees and 273.5 degrees. An examination of the airplane's SATLOC computer and power supply unit revealed no evidence of pre-existing anomalies. The SATLOC's memory card was found damaged and its damaged portion could not be read or recovered. The airplane was found on the shoulder of 8 Road, west of D Road. An on scene inspection of the airplane revealed that there was flight control and engine continuity and found no evidence of preimpact malfunctions. The left wing had a section of its leading edge torn off. This section was found in two pieces in the cornfield northwest of D Road and 8 Road's intersection. The parts exhibited a gouge and the parts mated to the missing area. A radio tower was found with one of its guy wire cables detached from its tower mounting position. The cable was found lying across power lines, across D Road, and was lying in the cornfield near the torn leading edge parts. A visibility study revealed that from where the pilot sat, the area of the left wing's leading edge where it was torn was blocked by the door post. The area could be viewed if a leaning forward position or a leaning to the left position was performed.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate visual lookout, and his failure to maintain clearance from the guy wire. A factor was the guy wire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI99FA267
- Event ID
- 20001212X19173
- Case number
- CHI99FA267
- 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: 73d95c0b0cc78cb0e80c037f2ee79d8286918a0f2acbf7e46ae19a4c5d30f3c0; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:56:32.047Z.