WPR26LA249 · Air Tractor Inc AT-502B
Vector Disease Control International Air Tractor Inc AT-502B · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR26LA249
- 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
- Ongoing
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- 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
- N647LA
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 18 years (built 2008)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On July 7, 2026, about 1259 mountain daylight time, an Air Tractor, Inc. AT-502B airplane, N647LA, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Ogden, Utah. The commercial pilot was not injured. The flight was conducted as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight.
The pilot reported that before takeoff, the left brake felt less effective than normal. He performed a brake check and subsequently departed to conduct a mosquito spray operation. During the takeoff roll, the pilot felt an abnormal flutter in the left brake pedal and considered aborting the takeoff. However, given the airplane’s weight, speed and position on the runway, he determined that continuing the takeoff presented less risk than attempting to stop. After departure, he sent a text message to company maintenance personnel advising that he suspected a problem with the left brake and that it would require inspection.
Upon returning to the airport he performed a wheel landing, during which the main landing gear contacted the runway before the tailwheel. After the tailwheel settled onto the runway, the airplane began veering to the right. The pilot applied full left rudder, followed by left brake; however, the airplane continued to veer right. He then applied reverse engine thrust to further slow the airplane’s speed. The left main landing gear subsequently collapsed, and the airplane rotated about 180° to the right, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage, left wing, and left aileron. The airplane then exited the runway and came to rest near the right side runway edge.
Postaccident examination of the left main gear assembly revealed that the wheel hub grease cap, cotter pin, wheel nut and outer wheel bearing were missing from the left wheel axle assembly. The outer face of the wheel exhibited impact gouges, and the brake components had a dark, wet appearance. The backing plate attached to the main landing gear spring exhibited a crack that ran the length of the plate. A search of the airport grounds did not locate the missing components.
The left main landing gear assembly was retained for further examination.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR26LA249
- Event ID
- 20260707203342
- Case number
- WPR26LA249
- 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. 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: a1c1144b7c2b9170049b3c844d6de58e8bcd7c5acb1c4e1f8e9c1fd60b850108; retrieved 2026-09-17T05:14:37.988Z.