On December 6, 2007, an Air Tractor AT-401 (registration N6024M) operated by Soilserv Inc was involved in an aviation accident near Soledad, CA. Investigators recorded the probable cause as: The pilot preoccupied himself with less important flight duties at a critical time during the flight. This summary draws on records from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) historical archive; 1 related events involving the same aircraft type or operator are linked below.
During a seeding flight, the pilot became distracted by GPS adjustments, lost airspeed, and executed a controlled collision with terrain in a ravine. The aircraft was destroyed by post-impact fire.
Incident Overview
A pilot conducting agricultural seeding operations crashed after becoming distracted by in-cockpit tasks. The airplane was destroyed in a post-impact fire following a controlled collision with terrain in a ravine.
Flight Sequence
The pilot had previously flown a reconnaissance flight to inspect the area adjacent to mountainous terrain. After completing the first seeding pass, he began maneuvering the airplane in a turn back toward the field. While checking the seeding pattern and making adjustments to the GPS system inside the cockpit, he became preoccupied. When he next checked the gauges, he realized the airplane had lost airspeed. He rolled the airplane to a wings-level configuration to regain airspeed, but the airplane was headed toward rising terrain. He jettisoned the remaining seed and made a controlled collision with terrain in a ravine.
Pilot Report
The pilot stated that he had preoccupied himself with less important flight duties at a critical time during the flight. He reported no mechanical problems that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot preoccupied himself with less important flight duties at a critical time during the flight.