What happened
On July 15, 2022, at approximately 18:55 UTC, an Air Tractor AT-802F, registration CS-EDY, crashed near Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Portugal. The aircraft, operated by AgroMontiar, was engaged in firefighting operations near the mouth of the Côa River.
Earlier that evening, the aircraft was part of a two-plane flight group dispatched from Viseu airfield to combat a fire northwest of Urros-Torre de Moncorvo. The crew had been performing several successful water scooping circuits from the Douro River. During the final approach for the day's last discharge, the aircraft climbed out from the river bank at an altitude of approximately 330 feet.
Witnesses reported that after clearing a hill on the left bank, the aircraft performed an abrupt nose and right-wing down movement. The pilot attempted an emergency release of the water load, but the aircraft could not recover. The AT-8 and wing struck a terrace, and the aircraft continued to slide through subsequent terraces before coming to rest 45 meters from the initial impact point. A post-crash fire destroyed the aircraft. The pilot was fatally injured.
The investigation
The GPIAAF initiated a safety investigation to examine the causes of the accident. Investigators arrived at the site on July 16, 2022, to conduct interviews and gather documentary evidence. The investigation is focusing on several key areas, including the flight envelope and local constraints, human factors related to the pilot, the aircraft's operational performance prior to the event, and the organizational procedures involved in the firefighting mission.
Investigators are also working to recover data from a severely damaged mobile device carried by the pilot, as well as information from a low-precision operational tracking system installed on the aircraft, to reconstruct the flight parameters leading up to the loss of control.