Air Tractor AT-802A N212FB

Summary

On 8 October 2024 at about 19:00 local time, a Air Tractor AT-802A registered N212FB, operated by Aero Spray Inc, was involved in an accident near Inguadona, Minnesota, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

8 October 2024 at 19:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Inguadona, Minnesota, United States

Coordinates

46.9542, -94.1304

Aircraft

Air Tractor AT-802A

Registration

N212FB

Category

Airplane

Year built

2010

Engines

1

Operator

Aero Spray Inc

Operating rule

Part 137: Agricultural

Purpose of flight

Fire Fighting

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Brainerd → Brainerd

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN25LA008

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to properly configure the landing gear on the amphibious airplane before a water landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot of the amphibious firefighting airplane departed from a land-based airport with a hard surface runway. The pilot reported that he was distracted during the initial climb by another airplane flying towards him on what looked like a low approach. According to the pilot this disrupted his callout flow, and he did not retract the landing gear. The flight was part of a training event, and the pilot was supposed to scoop water at a lake northwest of the scene of a mock fire. When he arrived at the intended lake another firefighting airplane had just scooped water and advised him to use a south to north scoop line. The pilot stated that he did his pre-scoop checklist, putting his hand on the landing gear lever and verbalizing “handle forward, four blue for the water,” as he was watching the other airplane. He said it did not register that the landing gear lever was aft and not forward or that there were four green lights instead of four blue. When the airplane landed it decelerated quickly and nosed over before settling upright, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings. The pilot egressed the airplane without incident and saw the floats had separated from the airplane and that the landing gear were extended. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.