CEN14CA427 · Air Tractor Inc AT 401B
Erhart Aerial Spraying Air Tractor Inc AT 401B · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Dodge City Regional Airport (DDC) to Dodge City Regional Airport (DDC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14CA427
- 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 401B
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-401
- 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
- N9071Z
- Operator
- Erhart Aerial Spraying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dodge City Regional Airport (DDC), Dodge City, KSTo Dodge City Regional Airport (DDC), Dodge City, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2001)
- 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
- Landing
- 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 control on ground
- 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
- Tower/antenna (incl guy wires)
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was setting up to spray a corn field bordered by radio antennas. He had sprayed the field previously and planned to use the same pattern this time. However, on his initial pass, he focused on the inner guy wire anchor point, which caused him to inadvertently fly between the inner and outer guy wires. When he started to pull-up, the airplane struck the outer wire, separating 7 feet of the left wing from the airplane. The pilot was able to maintain control and ultimately returned to the departure airport. However, the airplane rolled to the left when he reduced power on landing and he lost control at that time. The pilot stated that there were no problems with the airplane prior to the accident; the engine and flight controls were performing normally before the impact with the guy wire.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the antenna guy wire during an aerial application pass.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14CA427
- Event ID
- 20140813X11339
- Case number
- CEN14CA427
- 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: 3f3d834e47b3fc5e0d3c6a537c3957f3216fce6d8ccee068dbffb335135cef97; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:38:02.310Z.