ERA22FA338 · Air Tractor Inc. AT-802A
Westwind Air Air Tractor Inc. AT-802A and Lassco Air Tractor Inc. AT-802 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA22FA338
- 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-802A
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-802
- 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
- N749LA
- Operator
- Westwind Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Village Municipal Airport (M32), Lake Village, ARTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2021)
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Air Tractor Inc. AT-802
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-802
- 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
- N214RL
- Operator
- Lassco
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland, AR (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2021)
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of an Air Tractor AT-802A was applying chemical on the first pass over a cotton field in a southerly direction. Simultaneously, an AT-802 was ferrying in a southeasterly direction, between 400 and 500 ft above the ground. As the AT-802A pilot completed his pass and climbed to reverse the direction of turn, his airplane collided with the ferrying AT-802 passing overhead. The AT-802A continued in a left turn and crashed into a soybean field, killing the pilot. The AT-802 began to spin and descended vertically to the ground; its pilot was seriously injured. The surviving pilot of the AT-802 later reported that he was unaware that the other pilot was operating in the area. The two pilots were not communicating by radio. Although there may have been some sun glare that could have affected the AT-802A pilot’s visibility, the investigation revealed that both pilots were in positions to see the other airplane in ample time to avoid a collision. An examination of both wreckages did not reveal evidence of a preexisting malfunction or failure that would have prevented normal operation of the either airplane. Although the Professional Aerial Applicator’s Support System (PAASS) slogan, “Ferry above five (hundred) and stay alive” was known to the AT-802 pilot and was commonly known in the aerial application industry, this investigation revealed that both pilots consistently climbed above 500 ft agl during their reverse-direction turns while applying chemical. If the pilot of the AT-802 had flown his airplane at or above 1,000 ft agl, the collision would likely have been avoided.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to see and avoid the other airplane during aerial application and ferry operations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA22FA338
- Event ID
- 20220727105589
- Case number
- ERA22FA338
- 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, cause areas. 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: 533c9f974bfcd79be944ae23d3bc317f1bdafd4e7f0f80935dc318ef7b79218d; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:11:17.518Z.