CEN15LA389 · Air Tractor Inc AT 502B
Red Willow Aviation Spraying Air Tractor Inc AT 502B · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) while maneuvering
From Genoa Municipal Airport (97Y) to Genoa Municipal Airport (97Y)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA389
- 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
- N61267
- Operator
- Red Willow Aviation Spraying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Genoa Municipal Airport (97Y), Genoa, NETo Genoa Municipal Airport (97Y), Genoa, NE
- Aircraft age
- About 20 years (built 1995)
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was performing an aerial application flight when the airplane experienced a partial loss of engine power. The engine instruments showed that the engine was operating, but was producing less than idle power. The pilot applied full throttle with no effect. He subsequently turned the airplane into the wind, lowered the flaps, and when he heard corn hitting the bottom of the airplane, pulled the control stick full aft to stall the airplane. The left wing dropped and the airplane turned 90° as it impacted the ground. The engine continued to run until the pilot shut it down and exited the airplane.
An examination of the airplane's engine, propeller governor, fuel control unit, and fuel pump revealed no anomalies. An engine data recorder showed an exceedance of the N1 upper limit, followed by a decrease in internal turbine temperature, N1, and propeller rpm, consistent with a lower output by the engine.
The data were reviewed by the engine manufacturer, who concluded that the data were consistent with a feathered propeller; however, the reason for the propeller feathering could not be determined based on the available information.
Probable cause
Loss of propeller thrust for reasons that could not be determined, since examination of the airplane's engine, propeller, and associated accessories revealed no anomalies.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA389
- Event ID
- 20150831X71921
- Case number
- CEN15LA389
- 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: e55674ba355ea3a61102dde8250e78837ac70c1dece60ea836741b09e6e40087; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:43:54.188Z.