On July 9, 2020, about 0805 central daylight time, a Cessna 188 airplane, Canadian registry C-GWWE, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Pembina, North Dakota. The commercial pilot was seriously injured. The airplane was operated as a Canadian Aviation Regulations (CAR) Subpart 702 aerial work flight.
About 0745, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer observed the airplane spraying fungicide on a canola field in Canada with north-south passes. Following each southbound spray pass, the airplane would fly into the U.S. and make a left turn back toward the Canadian field. When the officer observed “a large ball of fire rising from a field,” he responded to the accident site and rendered assistance to the pilot. The officer did not observe the accident sequence.
The airplane impacted a canola field in the U.S. and came to rest inverted. The left-wing tip was near the initial ground impact point. The debris path was about 150 ft long and oriented toward the southeast.
Figure 1. Airplane at Accident Site.
Examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The onboard electronic devices did not contain any recorded flight data.
Strong westerly wind was present during the time of the accident and continued to increase following the accident. About 10 minutes after the accident time, reported wind in the area was 17 knots, with gusts to 22 knots.
The accident occurred on the third spray load of the day for the pilot. Due to his injuries, the pilot did not recall any information regarding the accident sequence.