Accident Overview
On August 21, 2020, at approximately 1430 central daylight time, an Air Tractor AT-802A airplane, registered as N759FA, sustained substantial damage in an accident near Del, Arkansas. The pilot sustained fatal injuries. The flight was being conducted as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application operation.
Flight Details
The purpose of the accident flight was to apply a fungicide agent to crops. Earlier that day, the pilot had completed three flights prior to the accident flight.
Witness Observations
Two witnesses who observed the airplane during the flight reported that it made a steep turn and subsequently lost altitude.
Examination Findings
A technical representative from the airframe manufacturer and a Federal Aviation Administration inspector examined the airplane at the accident site. The aircraft impacted terrain in a nose-down attitude. The front of the airplane was heavily damaged, the wings were accordioned-crushed along the wingspan, and the engine was embedded in the ground.
An on-site examination of the airframe did not identify any preimpact abnormalities that would have contributed to the accident.
Recorder Data
A Satloc GPS was downloaded. A portable Garmin Aera 660 GPS and an Electronics International MVP-50T engine monitor were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board’s Vehicle Recorder lab for download. The Garmin 660 GPS had impact damage and no data were recovered from the unit.
Nonvolatile memory was successfully downloaded from the MVP-50T engine monitor. A review of the data indicated that the accident flight was the 630th session, with recording starting at 1310:13.00 CDT and ending at 1434:45.00 CDT on August 21, 2020. The data also showed no sudden or change in engine parameters before the end of the recording.