CEN14CA442 · Rockwell International S 2R UNDESIGNAT
Benson Air Rockwell International S 2R UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Benson Municipal Airport (BBB) to Benson Municipal Airport (BBB)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14CA442
- 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
Rockwell International S 2R UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell S-2
- 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
- N9646A
- Operator
- Benson Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Benson Municipal Airport (BBB), Benson, MNTo Benson Municipal Airport (BBB), Benson, MN
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated he flew over the field to identify obstructions prior to beginning the spray passes. He noted a hog farm and powerline wires on the southwest side of the field so he decided to spray the field in a north/south pattern. The pilot began spraying on the east side of the field, and during the second pass, the airplane contacted a guide wire that extended from the row of powerlines, which paralleled his flight path. The pilot stated he did not see the guide wire while looking for obstructions. Upon hitting the wire, the engine lost power and the propeller appeared to feather. The pilot tried to gain altitude and was able to dump the remaining chemical load prior to the airplane impacting a corn field about ¾ of a mile from where it contacted the wire. The impact resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot reported there was no mechanical failure/malfunction of the airplane prior to contacting the wire.
Probable cause
The pilot failure to see and avoid the guide wire during the aerial application flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14CA442
- Event ID
- 20140820X63257
- Case number
- CEN14CA442
- 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, coordinates. 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: 4d84631eb19c59f85e4c5ef7d020bd581a2e129948402032d0e871c997cc8043; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:39:51.847Z.