FTW86FRG20 · Air Tractor AT301
Air Tractor AT301 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From T-74 · Taylor, TX to T-74 · Taylor, TX
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86FRG20
- 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
Air Tractor AT301
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT301
- 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
- N3168H
- Operator
- Muse, Samuel Wayne · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T-74 · Taylor, TXTo T-74 · Taylor, TX
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Separation
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Vibration
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
COMMERCIAL PILOT OF AN AIR TRACTOR AT301 ENROUTE TO BASE OF OPERATIONS AT TAYLOR, TX EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING AFTER EXPERIENCING SEVERE VIBRATION IN THE AIRCRAFT. LANDING WAS MADE TO A SOFT FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER DURING LANDING ROLL AND WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE PILOT ESCAPED INJURY. EXAMINATION OF WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT ONE PROPELLER BLADE FAILED AT A POINT APPROXIMATELY 10 INCHES FROM THE BLADE TIP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86FRG20
- Event ID
- 20001213X33557
- Case number
- FTW86FRG20
- 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: 66f98c6ea6d7fa9735f5c73af365eaf12f8a0a38c2c6f0bbda2b73ad5a3d8b74; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:40:16.235Z.