WPR16FA148 · Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B
Farm Air Flying Services Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B and Growers Air Service Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16FA148
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B
- 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
- N502WC
- Operator
- Farm Air Flying Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Riego Flight Strip (38CL), VERONA, CATo Riego Flight Strip (38CL), VERONA, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2012)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B
- 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
- N5044N
- Operator
- Growers Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Medlock Field (69CL), Davis, CATo Medlock Field (69CL), Davis, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 19 years (built 1997)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Physical
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Both agricultural application airplanes were returning to their respective home bases after completing application operations when they collided in-flight at an altitude less than 500 ft agl. Following the collision, one of the airplanes (N502WC) descended to ground contact, fatally injuring the pilot. The pilot of the second airplane (N5044N) performed a forced landing to a field. That pilot reported that he did not see the other airplane until immediately before the collision.
Examination of the engine and flight control systems of both airplanes revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation including the ability to maneuver the airplanes away from each other.
The deceased pilot had at least therapeutic levels of two impairing medications, cyclobenzaprine and hydrocodone, at the time of the accident. In addition, he had low levels of two sedating antihistamines, chlorpheniramine and diphenhydramine. These four drugs, in combination, would likely have slowed his psychomotor functioning and decreased his attentiveness to the flight environment. Therefore, it is likely that the fatally injured pilot's use of a combination cyclobenzaprine, hydrocodone, and two sedating antihistamines, contributed to his inability to successfully see and avoid the other airplane.
Based upon the sun's position and the statement from the second pilot, the sun was likely in the eyes of the deceased pilot. There was no evidence of the deceased pilot performing any evasive maneuver prior to the collision, which suggests that he never visually acquired the other airplane prior to the collision.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to maintain an adequate visual lookout, which resulted in a midair collision. Also causal was the pilot's use of two sedating antihistamines and two impairing medication and the effect of sun glare on his visual lookout, which likely led to his inability to successfully see and avoid the other airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16FA148
- Event ID
- 20160723X20253
- Case number
- WPR16FA148
- 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: d3a368261c11c5e2026f30381f63e26c01a752242b7f51ae4a9a9127c53eb2f4; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:08:44.276Z.