History of Flight
On March 27, 2018, about 1405 Pacific daylight time, a Schweizer Aircraft Corporation G-164B restricted category agricultural airplane, registration N3629E, was substantially damaged after colliding with high transmission power lines and subsequently impacting terrain about 10 nautical miles southwest of Stockton, California. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was owned and operated by Haley Flying Service of Tracy, California, conducting a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 agricultural application flight. No flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight, which had departed the operator's private airstrip about 30 minutes before the accident.
A company ground crewman who witnessed the accident reported that the field being sprayed had transmission towers angling across it to support power lines. After the pilot finished spraying the field north to south, the witness advised the pilot to spray the area west of the towers for proper coverage. As the witness watched, he saw a flash, looked up, and observed the airplane impact the ground. In a statement to law enforcement, the witness indicated that while the pilot was flying southbound below and under two sets of high transmission lines, the airplane clipped the second set, causing it to impact the ground nose first. There was no postimpact fire.
Personnel Information
The pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with a single-engine land rating. His most recent FAA second-class medical certificate was issued on October 4, 2017, at which time he reported about 703 hours total flight experience, with about 156 hours in the accident airplane make and model. He completed his most recent flight review on April 16, 2016.
Aircraft Information
The airplane's most recent annual inspection was performed on March 13, 2013, at a total time of 16,689.7 hours, with 17.2 hours since that inspection. It was equipped with a Honeywell TPE-331-201A turboprop engine rated at 715 horsepower, with a total time of 15,520 hours. The operator indicated no mechanical issues with the airplane or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Medical and Pathological Information
An autopsy performed by the Office of the Sheriff-Coroner, County of San Joaquin, determined the pilot's cause of death as blunt force trauma. Toxicology testing at the FAA Forensic Sciences Laboratory identified doxylamine (an antihistamine) and dextrorphan (a cough suppressant) in the pilot's blood and urine. No carbon monoxide was detected in the pilot's blood; no ethanol was detected in vitreous specimens. Testing for cyanide was not performed.