GAA16CA462 · Air Tractor Inc AT 400
Rustys Flying Service Air Tractor Inc AT 400 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Glasscock Field (4TS8) to Glasscock Field (4TS8)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA462
- 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 400
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT
- 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
- N31627
- Operator
- Rustys Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glasscock Field (4TS8), D'Hanis, TXTo Glasscock Field (4TS8), D'Hanis, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 33 years (built 1983)
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while maneuvering at low altitude over a field during an agricultural application flight, the airplane struck an antenna atop a tower adjacent to the field, and the antenna wrapped around the right wing and landing gear. The pilot added that he attempted an off-airport landing, but the airplane impacted terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, empennage, and both wings.
The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
In an e-mail, the tower owner's lawyer reported that the tower was used for internet and two-way communications. He added that the tower was under 200 ft above ground level and "with the antenna attached, the tower was in the mid to upper 100 [foot] range." The lawyer reported that the tower was marked and lit appropriately and was not registered due its height.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from an antenna atop a tower while maneuvering at a low altitude and the airplane’s subsequent impact with terrain during an attempted off-airport landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA462
- Event ID
- 20160906X31104
- Case number
- GAA16CA462
- 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: ad4ed9ad33c8e6846444a65bd2c269e6e7287b11441c402c28964ce4174f1f3b; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:13:31.268Z.