20170727010089A

On July 27, 2017, at approximately 10:30 a.m. eastern standard time (EST), N4886X experienced an uncontrollable landing at the Telfair-Wheeler County Airport (kmqw), causing substantial damage with one person on board and no injuries. N4886X, a 1974 Rockwell waters S-2R thrush was being operated under the provisions of title 14 CFR part 137. Day, visual meteorological conditions prevailed.

During an interview with the pilot in command (PIC), he stated that he had just departed from the cochran airport 48A and proceeded to a block of cotton fields 5 miles se of the eastman airport to begin spray operations with 250 gallons water/chemicals in the hopper and around 180 gallons of fuel onboard. After two spray passes he received a call from one of his ground crew stating that they did not add enough water to the spray solution which would cause him to run short on the number of acres he was to spray in that load. Due to time constraints the PIC decided to land at his alternate loading site located at the Telfair/Wheeler county airport mqw in Mcrae, GA in order to add more water. The wind was around 6 mph gusting to 10 out of the ene as he elected to land on rw 21 instead of rw 3 since there is a substantial upwards slope from that direction instead of landing downhill with the heavy load. The PIC made an approach to rw 21 at a little higher than normal airspeed in order to ease it down onto the pavement compensating for the loaded condition of the plane. He touched down around 1,500 ft. from the approach end of rw 21 and about the time the tailwheel was touching down he stated that he hit a depression on the runway pavement that unloaded the weight on the gear and the aircraft veered FAR to the left quickly. He then began to apply full right rudder and brake but with the quartering tailwind and high gross weight landing configuration he couldn't regain control of the aircraft as he departed the runway to the left and over an embankment collapsing the right landing gear to collapse and bending all three propeller blades. He stated that there were no known mechanical problems with the aircraft prior to the accident.

On July 27, 2017, at approximately 2:30 p.m. EST an inspector from the atlanta flight standards district office was dispatched to investigate the cause of the mishap. The inspector was met at the accident site by the owner/operator of the aircraft and acknowledged the downloading of the chemicals that were located on board the aircraft. Once the chemicals had been removed a thorough investigation of the accident site was conducted. During the investigation it was confirmed that the aircraft had touched down at around 1500 ft from the approach end of rw 21 due to the tire identification marks that were left on the runway and continued to the left and down the embankment. Further investigation revealed that the right wing had suffered several areas of buckling on top of the wing along the spar. Additionally the right gear was collapsed and all three blades of the propeller were bent. No other damage was noted.