CEN19FA003 · Air Tractor AT502 B
Coastal Flying Service Air Tractor AT502 B · Accident: low altitude operation/event en route
From Ganado, TX (private airstrip) to Ganado, TX (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19FA003
- 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 AT502 B
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT502
- 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
- N6135P
- Operator
- Coastal Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ganado, TX (private airstrip)To Ganado, TX (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 23 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
- En route
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was flying at a low altitude during an agricultural application flight when the airplane impacted a radio antenna tower. The airplane struck the main antenna near the top of the structure, separating the upper section of the tower. A representative of the operator reported that the accident flight was the first time the pilot had sprayed that particular field, which was located about 1/2-mile from the antenna. The pilot had reviewed satellite imagery before the flight in order to identify potential hazards and was aware of power lines running along the south edge of the field and the proximity of the antenna.
A witness reported that the airplane appeared to be level and flying along a road in the direction of the antenna. A second witness reported hearing the airplane fly over followed by the sound of the impact with the antenna tower. He subsequently observed the airplane descending toward the ground.
The airplane came to rest near the antenna tower along the two-lane road. The road was oriented toward the west-southwest which was nearly in line with the setting sun. The upper section of the antenna tower was intertwined with the right wing of the airplane at the accident site. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postimpact fire. A postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. The antenna tower was marked in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration recommendations.
Weather conditions were good at the time of the accident with 10 miles visibility and no obscuration or precipitation. The sun was positioned about 6°above the horizon to the west-southwest. The accident occurred about 30 minutes before sunset.
It is likely that the pilot lost situational awareness relative to the antenna tower due to the close proximity of the application field, the power lines, and the antenna tower. In addition, the position of the sun at the time of the accident likely hindered the pilot's ability to see and avoid the antenna tower.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the antenna tower, a known obstruction, during the agricultural application flight. Contributing to the accident was glare from the sun which hindered the pilot's ability to see and avoid the antenna tower.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19FA003
- Event ID
- 20181012X14551
- Case number
- CEN19FA003
- 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: 58bc1e31eeee6cfe5e8adb6b7478ffa0d18e3d3f5231558055b1a9227e4df84e; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:49:21.913Z.