CEN13LA426 · Air Tractor Inc. AT-502
Woodley Aerial Spray Air Tractor Inc. AT-502 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Sneek Airport (2IL0) to Sneek Airport (2IL0)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA426
- 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
- N502MH
- Operator
- Woodley Aerial Spray
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sneek Airport (2IL0), Shannon, ILTo Sneek Airport (2IL0), Shannon, IL
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had completed three uneventful aerial application flights on the day of the accident; however, shortly after lifting off for the fourth flight, the airplane encountered a sudden wind shear and was unable to climb out of ground effect. The airplane descended from an altitude of 10-12 feet above the ground into the corn crop located off the end of runway. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. A review of available wind data indicated that calm wind conditions prevailed throughout the morning; however, a shift to a northwest wind occurred about the time of the accident, which would have resulted in a tailwind and a reduced climb gradient.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inability to maintain an adequate climb rate after encountering a sudden wind shift during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA426
- Event ID
- 20130722X62136
- Case number
- CEN13LA426
- 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: a3b1a590ffaa66de2f7a1d5c0b5062ddb84bb29d86cbad96f9e4296639557483; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:16:43.703Z.