Air Tractor Inc AT-802A accident near Helena, MT
On July 10, 2024, an Air Tractor Inc AT-802A (airplane) was involved in an accident near Helena, MT. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- July 10, 2024
- Place
- Helena, MT
- Aircraft
- Air Tractor Inc AT-802A · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 46.666°N, 111.809°W
- NTSB ID
- 20240710194667
Official records · WPR24FA238
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn July 10, 2024, about 1210 mountain daylight time, an Air Tractor AT-802A (Fire Boss) airplane, N10122, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Helena, Montana. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as public use aircraft for the purpose of firefighting. The operator reported dispatching four of their single-engine air tankers to Helena for the United States Forest Service in support of aerial firefighting efforts for the Horse Gulch Fire. The flight of four departed Coeur d’Alene Airport – Pappy Boyington Field (COE), Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about 1 hour and 44 minutes before the accident, and flew directly to Hauser Lake, where they began scooping water from the lake. The accident airplane was flying in the No. 2 position. During its first water scoop, witnesses on the lake and the pilots of the two airplanes flying behind the accident airplane saw the airplane make a turn to the left. The airplane subsequently impacted a vertical rock face bordering the southern shoreline of the lake, fell into the water, and sank. According to the lead pilot, after the lead airplane’s scoops deployed, he recognized a slight tailwind and aborted the scoop. He transmitted instructions for the remaining airplanes to abort the scoop sequence. The pilots of the Nos. 3 and 4 airplanes acknowledged the transmission; however, the accident pilot did not. The lead pilot repeated the abort instruction specifically to the accident pilot but received no response. The accident airplane was equipped with a SpiderTrack flight tracking syste
Probable cause
The pilot’s loss of situational awareness during the water scoop due to task overload while operating in a multi-airplane tactical firefighting environment, which resulted in the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control and the airplane’s collision with terrain.
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Browse: Montana · Air Tractor aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
