MIA05LA127 · Air Tractor AT-502
Southeastern Aerial Crop Service Air Tractor AT-502 · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Southeastern Airport (FD30) to Southeastern Airport (FD30)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA05LA127
- 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
Air Tractor AT-502
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-502
- 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
- N4515V
- Operator
- Southeastern Aerial Crop Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southeastern Airport (FD30), Fort Pierce, FLTo Southeastern Airport (FD30)
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident flight was the first flight of the day; the pilot was attempting to depart with full fuel tanks and the hopper containing approximately 425 gallons of chemical. After the engine was started the pilot cycled the propeller control one time, and taxied to the approach end of the runway. He reportedly lowered 1 notch of flaps, and applied power noting the maximum torque achieved was 1,650 foot-pounds. The upper torque limit for the airplane/engine combination was 1,795 foot-pounds. During the takeoff roll he noted the airplane was "dragging a little bit", and noticed the torque decreased to 1,600 foot-pounds. The flight continued and he reportedly attempted to dump the load in the hopper but was unable to move the handle. He continued the takeoff and the airplane became airborne, settled onto a road, and collided with trees in an orange grove past the departure end of the runway. Another pilot for the operator reported that when the airplane went past his position which was approximately 100 feet before the departure end of the runway, he did not recall seeing any flaps extended. According to the operator, postaccident the hopper dump valve tested satisfactory, and the flap actuator was measured and found to indicate between 0 and 10 degrees of flaps extended. The airplane flight manual indicates that with the flight conditions experienced, the flaps should be extended 10 degrees. Examination of the engine and engine components at the engine manufacturer's facility revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to abort the takeoff after a reported loss of engine power during the takeoff roll, resulting in the in-flight collision with a fence and trees. A factor in the accident was the failure of the pilot to lower the flaps to 10 degrees as specified in the airplane flight manual.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA05LA127
- Event ID
- 20050708X00958
- Case number
- MIA05LA127
- 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: 81542bdab7160cf03e85014024bf951b7f0f8ea031b6aad7cad6a54104f11c3b; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:58:15.466Z.