GAA19CA339 · Air Tractor AT502 B
Sun Valley Dusting Air Tractor AT502 B · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during takeoff
From Kornegay Private Airport (53XS) to Kornegay Private Airport (53XS)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA339
- 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 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
- N103CK
- Operator
- Sun Valley Dusting
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kornegay Private Airport (53XS), San Benito, TXTo Kornegay Private Airport (53XS), San Benito, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 7 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, during takeoff with a "heavy load" from a 2,600-ft-long private runway, the airplane lifted off, but "due to a shifting wind and high density altitude," the airplane aerodynamically stalled and impacted a field at the end of the runway. The airplane nosed over and was consumed by a postimpact fire.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the airplane's gross weight at the time of the accident was 9,350 lbs, and the manufacturer's maximum gross takeoff weight was 9,400 lbs.
An automated weather observation station located 6 miles north of the accident site reported that, about 37 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 190° at 10 knots, 10 statute miles visibility, scattered clouds at 5,000 ft, temperature 90° F, dew point 70° F, and altimeter setting 30.04 inches of mercury. The same automated station reported that, about 22 minutes after the accident, the wind was from 040° at 6 knots. The airplane was departing from runway 12.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to take off with the airplane near its maximum allowable gross takeoff weight and his subsequent exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack during takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA339
- Event ID
- 20190614X13326
- Case number
- GAA19CA339
- 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: dbda5daa463b678d517234fc6ab2d8df0ab244ba61be4fa390a79d0aee9dfb30; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:16:26.317Z.