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Stall led to fatal plane crash near Arborfield in 2018: TSB

Jan 24, 2019 | 9:57 AM

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released their report on a fatal plane crash near Arborfield last summer.

The report said the Cessna A188B AGtruck operated by Clayton Air Service left Arborfield Airport for crop spraying on the afternoon of July 12, 2018.

After finishing spraying in a field east of Carrot River, the pilot texted the company to let them know the job was complete and that he was returning to Arborfield.

A bystander heard the aircraft crash soon after, and reached the crash site within five minutes of the initial explosion.

The pilot was fatally injured, and the aircraft was destroyed.

The TSB concluded in the report that the aircraft “struck the ground in a wooded area at a very shallow pitch angle with a high rate of vertical descent” and had little forward speed, indicative of an ‘aerodynamic stall from a low altitude.”

An inspection of the airframe and cockpit was inconclusive as most of the aircraft was destroyed by the fire that happened after impact.

The investigation could not determine the sequence of events before the stall, said the TSB report, “[d]ue to the lack of witnesses and the lack of flight data information, as well as the level of destruction by the fire.”

 

cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974