WPR11LA278 · Air Tractor Inc AT-502
Vector Disease Control International Air Tractor Inc AT-502 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Mccarley Field (U02) to Mccarley Field (U02)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA278
- 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 Inc 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
- N1515P
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mccarley Field (U02), Blackfoot, IDTo Mccarley Field (U02), Blackfoot, ID
- 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
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during takeoff for a local aerial application flight, the airplane became airborne slightly beyond the normal rotation point. As the airplane approached the departure end of the runway, the engine did not develop enough power to maintain flight. The pilot stated that due to the amount of runway remaining, he was unable to abort the takeoff. He then lowered the nose in an effort to gain more airspeed but did not jettison the chemical load in the hopper. Subsequently, the airplane struck multiple trees beyond the departure end of the runway and came to rest upright. Company personnel reported that, per the pilot's request prior to the accident flight, the airplane was loaded with an amount of chemical that was similar to amounts that he had been using throughout the day. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Signatures observed on the engine's internal components exhibited characteristics of the engine developing power at the time of impact, likely in a high power range. The airplane was found to be within weight and balance limitations at the time of the accident. The reason for the engine to not develop sufficient power for the airplane to maintain a positive rate of climb could not be determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during takeoff for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA278
- Event ID
- 20110622X12645
- Case number
- WPR11LA278
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: fd19297ff58e575f4e5efd1bd36c92feb008e94d8a9e26a454806661de9471fd; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:19:47.268Z.