FTW85LA039 · Air Tractor AT-301
Air Tractor AT-301 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Pharr, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85LA039
- 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 AT-301
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-301
- 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
- N8523S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pharr, TXTo 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
- 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
- Lubricating system, oil hose › Failure, total
- Lubricating system, oil hose › Overtemperature
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not possible
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, misread
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER A LOSS OF OIL PRESSURE THE ACFT WAS LANDED DOWNWIND. DURING THE PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ACROSS PLOWED FURROWS, THE RT WING CAUGHT IN THE SUGAR CANE CROP AND THE ACFT TURNED TO THE RT, COLLAPSING THE LEFT LANDING GEAR AND DAMAGING THE LEFT WING. THE PLTS ATTENTION WAS CAUGHT BY THE SMELL OF HOT OIL DURING THE FLT. THE PLT LATER TOLD FAA INSPECTORS THAT AN OIL RETURN LINE HAD RUPTURED AND HE LANDED TO PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE ENGINE. EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE RUBBER OIL LINE (HOSE) HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO HIGH TEMPERATURES; RUDDER INSIDE THE WOVEN STEEL CASING WAS BRITTLE. THE LAST 100 HR INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED 3 FLT HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85LA039
- Event ID
- 20001214X41578
- Case number
- FTW85LA039
- 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: 0e9f528fde4ddb13293c98240bff980d096865724b35c017ec94fec9fa363b9b; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:51:28.141Z.