Sunday, July 31, 2022

Air Tractor AT-502A, N501MW: Fatal accident occurred July 30, 2022 in Ute, Monona County, Iowa

National Transportation Safety Board - Accident Report Number: CEN22FA347

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Des Moines, Iowa

Aircraft crashed in a field after striking powerline and caught on fire.


Date: 30-JUL-22
Time: 18:09:00Z
Regis#: N501MW
Aircraft Make: AIR TRACTOR
Aircraft Model: AT-502
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: FATAL
Total Fatal: 1
Flight Crew: 1 Fatal
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: DESTROYED
Activity: AERIAL APPLICATION
Flight Phase: MANEUVERING (MNV)
Operation: 137
City: UTE
State: IOWA

Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation may contact them by email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov. You can also call the NTSB Response Operations Center at 844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290.


SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been on the scene today of a deadly plane crash outside of Ute, Iowa.

The investigators spent the day examining the  Air Tractor AT-502A that’s used for agricultural spraying. Yesterday, A 911 caller told the dispatcher a plane had struck powerlines, crashed and caught fire in a roadway Saturday afternoon, according to a news release from the Monona County Sheriff’s office.

They are trying to determine if any outside factors played a role in the crash.

As of now, investigators are uncertain if the plane was flying in a North to South, or an East to West pattern.

Their focus today was spent on ruling out the possibility of a what they called a pre-impact anomaly.

“So what we’re doing right now is the on scene documentation, so really this is the point where we’re trying to get all of the information that we can about what the scene looks like. What angles, what’s down, what we’re doing, so that’s what we’re documenting right now. We’re looking at the airplane is all in tact in one area so we’re not looking at any pieces that came off prior to hitting the power lines.,” said Jason Aguilera, of the NTSB.

Investigators did not let media pass the road block.

Other factors that the investigators will look at include weather at the time of the crash and the amount of experience the pilot had.

The name of the pilot hasn’t been released yet pending notification of relatives.






A crop dusting pilot was killed Saturday in a plane crash near Ute, Iowa.

The Monona County 911 Center received a call shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday that an aircraft had crashed near 230th Street and Teak Avenue just south of Ute in west-central Iowa, according to a news release from the Monona County Sheriff's office.

The Monona County Sheriff's office, Ute Fire and Ambulance, St. Luke's Pathology, Western Iowa Power and Monona County Secondary Roads Department all responded to the scene and found a commercial crop-dusting spray plane in the roadway on fire. The caller reported that the plane struck electrical lines and crashed.

The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. 

As of Sunday morning, the sheriff's department said notifications were still being made and that the pilot's name had not been released. The name of the commercial crop dusting company also was unavailable. 

The FAA and NTSB are conducting an investigation. 




MONONA COUNTY, Iowa — Authorities are investigating what caused a spray place to crash in Monona County on Saturday.

The Monona County Sheriff's Office responded to a downed aircraft near 230th and Teak Avenue near Ute, Iowa just after 1 p.m. Saturday.

They discovered that a spray place had struck electrical lines and crashed into the road. First responders found the plane on fire when they arrived.

The pilot, who is not being identified, died in the crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the crash.

1 comment:

  1. I don't know what's going on, but it seems the past 2 years plus for Ag pilot deaths and even non-deaths but the hull is totaled incidents have spiked. Every one of them increases our already severely compromised food supply chain. RIP to every one who lost his/her life doing this. I just wish these reports wouldn't be so frequent these days.

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