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CEN23FA409 · Thrush Aircraft LLC S2R-T660

12 Sept 2023 · Ardoch, ND, United States

Flyiton Thrush Aircraft LLC S2R-T660 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering

From Oslo, MN (private airstrip) to Oslo, MN (private airstrip)

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Event

NTSB case
CEN23FA409
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

Thrush Aircraft LLC S2R-T660

Aircraft type
Thrush S2
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
N710TY
Operator
Flyiton
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Oslo, MN (private airstrip)To Oslo, MN (private airstrip)
Aircraft age
Built the same year (2023)
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
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
Wire
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

  • Environmental issues › Physical environment
  • Personnel issues › Action/decision
  • Personnel issues › Psychological

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot was conducting an aerial application flight when the airplane’s left wing impacted a guy wire attached to a power line structure. The impact with the guy wire occurred while the airplane was flying along the edge of the field being sprayed. The outboard 7 ft of the left wing and the left aileron separated during the impact with the guy wire. The airplane subsequently crashed in a cornfield about 0.3 mile from the guy wire impact.

Examination of the airplane wreckage revealed no evidence of a preimpact malfunction that would have prevented its normal operation. A review of recorded engine monitor data revealed no evidence of an engine malfunction or failure during the flight. Day visual meteorological conditions existed, and the position of the sun at high noon would not have negatively affected the pilot’s view ahead of the airplane. The pilot’s autopsy and postmortem toxicology tests did not reveal any evidence of medical incapacitation or impairment.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from a guy wire during an aerial application flight.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CEN23FA409
Event ID
20230912193049
Case number
CEN23FA409
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, coordinates, 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: 7994a11f0d97f009fb450ee656d99c90fd22e1aa4d5458f6b6c5c03c1ef1873a; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:05:41.613Z.