CEN13LA371 · Air Tractor Inc AT-502B
Campbell Aerial Spraying Air Tractor Inc AT-502B · Accident: loss of lift during takeoff
From Campbell, NE (private airstrip) to Campbell, NE (private airstrip)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA371
- 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-502B
- 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
- N6017E
- Operator
- Campbell Aerial Spraying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Campbell, NE (private airstrip)To Campbell, NE (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
- Takeoff
- 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 lift
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before takeoff, the airplane's hopper was about one-third full, and the fuel tanks were half full. During the takeoff roll, the airplane did not become airborne when it reached the expected point of rotation. The pilot scanned the gauges, verified full power, and increased the flaps. The airplane briefly became airborne, but then it settled to the ground. The airplane impacted a fence and rotated 180 degrees before coming to a complete stop, which resulted in substantial damage. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical anomalies with the airplane. Meteorological data indicated that the density altitude was about 4,100 feet. The high-density altitude likely contributed to the airplane's reduced performance.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue with the takeoff roll despite the airplane's difficulty becoming airborne The high-density altitude likely contributed to the airplane's reduced performance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA371
- Event ID
- 20130625X62910
- Case number
- CEN13LA371
- 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: c9117edd1d2907da3b4db1eaea942bdb48d4c01b657950742b6465d2f7b59dd5; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:00:05.096Z.