DEN87LA193 · Cessna T188C
Dakota Aviation Cessna T188C · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Hutson Field (GAF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87LA193
- 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
- 0 · 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
Cessna T188C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 188
- 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
- N2037J
- Operator
- Dakota Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hutson Field (GAF), Grafton, NDTo 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, 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS PREPARING TO SPRAY A POTATO FIELD WITH A MIXTURE OF WATER AND 2 LBS OF 'BLIGHT-OUT.' HE MADE ONE OBSERVATION PASS OVER THE FIELD TO CHECK FOR OBSTRUCTIONS AND NOTICED TWO SETS OF POWER LINES, ONE ON THE EAST SIDE OF A ROAD AND THE OTHER ON THE WEST SIDE. THE PLT STARTED HIS SPRAY PASS TO THE EAST. HE SAID HE 'FIXATED' ON TOP OF THE POWER LINE POLE TO ESTABLISH THE HEIGHT OF THE WIRES. AS HE PULLED UP FOR THE POLE, HE REALIZED HE WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. THE WEST WIRES BLENDED IN WITH THE WIRES ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE ROAD. BECAUSE HE HAD VERY LITTLE ALTITUDE, THE PLT DECIDED TO FLY UNDERNEATH THE POWER LINES. THE PLT SAID HE COLLIDED WITH THE POWER LINES AND CRASHED, FLIPPED INVERTED, AND SKIDDED TO A HALT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87LA193
- Event ID
- 20001213X31483
- Case number
- DEN87LA193
- 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 1987-07-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f05d23795a1b044c5ed421ee31e47fddf175320420bd36bc86455cbdfac23cc8; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:22:25.503Z.