Primary finding
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with the power lines
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The pilot of an agricultural airplane impacted powerlines on the last pass of the last flight of the day while spraying rice fields. Control was lost and the airplane impacted a flooded rice field in a nose low attitude.
Source record
Factual narrative
On June 2, 1993, at approximately 1700 central daylight time, a Grumman G 164A airplane, N6752Q, was destroyed upon impact with power lines and terrain while maneuvering near Ganado, Texas. The commercial pilot, sole occupant of the airplane, was fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the aerial application flight. The airplane was owned and operated by Arenosa Flying service of Edna, Texas. According to the operator, the pilot was assigned to spray fertilizer on rice fields about two and a half miles north of Ganado, Texas, off Farm to Market Road 710 in Jackson County. The collision with the wires occurred as the airplane was completing the last pass on the last flight of the day. According to witnesses at the accident site, the airplane was spraying on a field traversed from east to west by power lines suspended between towers. The airplane was observed striking the power lines and impacting the flooded rice field in a nose low attitude, coming to rest inverted. An autopsy and toxicology tests were ordered and performed. The autopsy was performed by Roberto J. Bayardo, M.D, Chief Medical Examiner for Travis County on June 3, 1993. Toxicological reports submitted by the Civil Aeromedical Institute were negative. The airplane was released to the owner at the accident site on June 4, 1993. -