In a report filed Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot said the engine in the crop duster lost power 15 minutes into the flight, while he returned from spraying a field near Byron.
Pilots are required to report accidents to the safety board immediately, but the Federal Aviation Administration has no authority to discipline the pilot, a federal flight official said.
The NTSB had been searching for the pilot since Feb. 25. Two days earlier, the pilot had crash landed the Schweizer G-164B into a tomato field and walked away mostly uninjured, though blood was found on the plane.
The crashed plane is registered to Haley Flying Service Inc., a crop dusting company based off South Tracy Boulevard. The company did not return phone calls.
The report says the pilot glided the plane into an open field, and when it touched down, its tires sunk into the wet ground and the airplane flipped over its nose onto its back.
Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies and a helicopter were the first to show up to the crash site Feb. 25, when a private pilot told local air traffic controllers he saw a yellow, single-engine plane upside-down and broken into several pieces in a marsh just northeast of Byron.
Contact a Tracy Press reporter or editor at 835-3030 or tpnews@tracypress.com.
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