ERA14FA399 · Air Tractor Inc AT-802A
Ag Air Air Tractor Inc AT-802A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Beech River Regional Airport (PVE) to Beech River Regional Airport (PVE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14FA399
- 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
- 1 · 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-802A
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-802
- 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
- N802BB
- Operator
- Ag Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beech River Regional Airport (PVE), Parsons, TNTo Beech River Regional Airport (PVE), Parsons, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 1999)
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was applying chemicals to a soybean field when the airplane struck trees located at the edge of the field and then impacted the ground. Data from the onboard aerial spray operations computer revealed that the pilot was making spray passes to the east and west over the soybean field at low altitude and reversing course between each pass by making a left 180-degree turn. The data stopped before the tree impact; however, the wreckage path began just east of the north-south line of 50-ft-tall trees and was oriented to the east indicating the pilot was likely about to begin a spray pass to the east when the airplane impacted the trees. Examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of preexisting anomalies or malfunctions. The propeller blades exhibited signatures consistent with power at the time of impact, and several tree limbs were found along the debris path with smooth, 45-degree cuts. Toxicology testing and autopsy results on the pilot revealed no evidence of an incapacitating event.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to see and avoid trees during a low-level aerial application operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14FA399
- Event ID
- 20140820X83908
- Case number
- ERA14FA399
- 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: dce5483d03332557b3b097d392684a476a4c53157a1755c9fee3b057cb3bfa44; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:24:24.731Z.