CEN12CA313 · Ayres Corporation S2R-R1340
Scott Thompson Trustee Ayres Corporation S2R-R1340 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Estelline, SD (private airstrip) to Estelline, SD (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA313
- 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
Ayres Corporation S2R-R1340
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- 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
- N30951
- Operator
- Scott Thompson Trustee
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Estelline, SD (private airstrip)To Estelline, SD (private airstrip)
- 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
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he saw the power lines at the north end of the field as he started the aerial application work. However, he reported that he did not conduct a detailed observation of the lines. The power lines had two lower wires that he did not anticipate, and the arrangement of the lines was different from those he had seen in the area previously. As he approached the north end of the field, he was concentrating on a small group of trees when the airplane impacted the lines. He stated that the two lower wires caught him completely by surprise. The windshield separated as a result of the impact, and he had difficulty seeing because of debris and wind in his eyes. He subsequently elected to dump the application load and execute a precautionary/forced landing to an open field. The pilot reported that there were no anomalies related to the airplane prior to impacting the wires. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings and empennage during the landing.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to perform a detailed observation of the power lines before beginning the aerial application work, which resulted in an inadvertent collision with the two lower wires.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA313
- Event ID
- 20120524X00845
- Case number
- CEN12CA313
- 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: af2f5ee97562921ca5bfd9071fd1f08ae245fb827e71cb7e3ebd44ea060eaf65; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:14:03.448Z.