CEN17CA294 · Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B
Custom Air Air Tractor Inc AT 502B B · Accident while maneuvering
From Harrold, SD to Harrold, SD
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17CA294
- 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 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
- N421CA
- Operator
- Custom Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harrold, SDTo Harrold, SD
- Aircraft age
- About 8 years (built 2009)
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › Miscellaneous
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of an agricultural airplane reported that he planned to apply an herbicide and test the spray system at maximum pressure at a specified airspeed. He added that a ground tractor was also in the field applying the same chemical. During the flight, he saw the tractor and passed over it between about 50 and 100 ft above ground level (agl). While spraying at 10 ft agl, he noted pressure, output, airspeed, and ground speed. At the end of the field, he climbed and made a left, 180° turn for another pass. The pilot reported that he "lost focus" outside of the airplane while looking at the spray results, and when he noticed the tractor, it was too late; the airplane's wheel collided with the tractor. Examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the fuselage.
The tractor driver reported that he heard someone call him on the radio and that he answered the pilot on the radio and saw the airplane coming "directly at him, very low." The tractor driver heard and felt the impact and was knocked from his seat by the collision. The tractor driver then called his supervisor for help. The tractor driver added that his supervisor and another ground sprayer had been "buzzed" by the pilot before.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper attempt at a low-pass maneuver, which resulted in a collision with a tractor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17CA294
- Event ID
- 20170801X34818
- Case number
- CEN17CA294
- 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: da7527db030fad7679d3595ade337b9e5c1b6dad0dc6a81ce985fea20c206890; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:38:36.842Z.