Air Tractor Inc AT-602 N602BA accident near Camden, Colorado

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate clearance from a power transformer that was mounted to a power pole during an aerial application flight.

NTSB analysis

The agricultural pilot was conducting an aerial application flight when the airplane’s right wing struck a power transformer that was mounted to a power pole. The impact with the power transformer occurred while the airplane was flying west along the north edge of the field being sprayed. A witness saw the airplane pitch up over a grouping of large trees when it rolled to the right and then descended into an adjacent cornfield.

A wreckage examination revealed no evidence of a preimpact mechanical malfunction or failure that would have prevented normal airplane operation. The right wingtip, right aileron counterbalance weight with mounting bracket, outboard half of the right aileron, and right-wing aileron cove skin separated from the airplane when the right wing struck the power transformer. As such, the pilot was unlikely able to maintain roll control of the airplane after the right wing struck the power transformer.

Day visual meteorological conditions existed, and the position of the sun at the time would not have negatively affected the pilot’s view ahead of the airplane. The pilot’s autopsy and postmortem toxicology tests did not reveal any evidence of medical incapacitation or impairment.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN24FA338 for the full record.