MIA02CA174 · Cessna 188B
Wayne Aerial Crop Spraying Cessna 188B · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Wayne Executive Jetport (KGWW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02CA174
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 188B
- 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
- N21689
- Operator
- Wayne Aerial Crop Spraying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wayne Executive Jetport (KGWW), Goldsboro, NCTo 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, static
- 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
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he was contracted to spray the Wayne Company Wildlife Club Pond which was dry and he surveyed the area on the day of the accident noting obstacles around the lake. After surveying the area he returned to where the airplane was based, loaded chemicals into the hopper tank, and departed. He reported that he sprayed all the big parts of the lake and proceeded to spray all the small parts of the lake (bends, coves, etc). While he was spraying one of the coves, he observed just before impact a 1/4 inch diameter cable that was stretched across the coves; the cable was approximately 15-20 feet above ground level. The tail wheel of the airplane collided with the cable which separated from one of the ends where it was connected to a tree. The flight continued and the cable wrapped around the tail damaging the elevator flight controls, vertical stabilizer, and right elevator. The flight continued and the airplane crashed in a corn field. The pilot advised the FAA inspector that there was no airframe or engine malfunction prior to the cable strike. Examination of the accident site and the airplane by the FAA inspector revealed that the airplane collided with a .250 inch diameter unmarked cable that stretched between two trees of the southeast cove; the cable remained secured to one of the trees. Examination of the airplane revealed that the right horizontal stabilizer and elevator were separated, and the forward spar of the vertical stabilizer was fractured. The rear spar of the vertical stabilizer was not fractured.
Probable cause
The inability of the pilot to see the .250 inch diameter unmarked cable resulting in the in-flight collision with the cable and substantial damage to the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02CA174
- Event ID
- 20020930X05247
- Case number
- MIA02CA174
- 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, coordinates. 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: a92f890a054fbfc09a24597908661191b86460c4a2b57abe251a9cbffa61074c; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:36:46.913Z.