What happened
On June 1, 2012, an Air Tractor AT802A amphibious aircraft, registration EC-KRF, was engaged in firefighting operations in the province of Valencia, Spain. After completing an initial water drop on a fire, the aircraft proceeded to the Benagéber reservoir to reload water.
During the scooping maneuver, the aircraft struck the water and immediately capsized, remaining in an inverted position. The pilot, who was wearing a helmet and life vest, was restrained by his harness as the cockpit began to flood. During the struggle to right himself, the pilot's life vest inadvertently inflated, causing significant pressure against his neck and helmet. The pilot managed to remove the gear, waited for the cockpit to fill with water to equalize pressure, and successfully exited the aircraft through a door. The pilot sustained minor/no injuries, though the aircraft suffered significant damage.
The investigation
The CIAIAC investigation established that the landing gear was fully extended and locked at the time of the impact. The investigation focused on why the gear remained down during a water-based operation.
Investigators found that the pilot had been interrupted during the takeoff and initial climb phase by a radio call regarding a change in the COMDES working group frequency. This interruption caused the pilot to fail to complete the post-takeoff checklist, which included the retraction of the landing gear. Furthermore, the investigation examined the effectiveness of the aircraft's gear indication system, the pilot's training regarding cockpit flooding, and the design of the life vest inflation mechanism.
Findings
- The primary cause of the accident was that the landing gear was down during the water scooping operation because the takeoff checklist was interrupted and never resumed.
- The pilot prioritized receiving critical firefighting communications over completing the flight-related checklist.
- The aircraft's gear indication panel is located outside the pilot's normal field of view and uses a horizontal orientation that is not intuitively associated with the gear's position.
- The Gear Advisory System was ineffective because the activation speed was not properly calibrated, leading to a lack of trust in the system's alerts.
- The pilot's life vest inflated inside the cockpit because the manual inflation pull tab became caught on his safety harness during the capsizing event.
- The pilot had not received specific training for procedures involving a capsized aircraft and a flooding cockpit.