Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18A N851EJ accident near Dansville, New York

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from crops during an agricultural application flight.

NTSB analysis

The pilot reported that he was performing an agricultural application flight to a corn field, which had a tree line running west to east on the north side of the field and another tree line running north to south on the east end of the field. He was making application passes from east to west and started at the south side of the field progressing northward toward the tree line with each pass. He added that he noticed that the wind speed increased to about 10 to 12 mph. During the second to last spray pass, while heading west, he came over the east end tree line and descended close to the corn. About 300 ft into the field, the airplane began to descend rapidly, and he pitched the airplane's nose up. He added that the descent continued and that the airplane began to lose airspeed. The landing gear struck the corn, and the airplane impacted terrain and came to rest inverted.

The pilot added that he believed a combination of descending air that rolled over the north line of trees, wind shear, the low-altitude flying, and reduced margin of error for the proper application of pesticide caused the accident.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the empennage.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

A weather station, located about 3 miles northeast of the accident site reported, about the time of the accident, temperature 85.3°F, dew point 68.3°F, and wind from 293° at 6 mph, gusting to 8 mph.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for GAA18CA502 for the full record.