Plane crash second involving cropduster in Louisiana in two days

RAPIDES PARISH, La. (KPLC) - Tuesday’s fatal plane crash was the second cropduster crash in two days in Louisiana.

It was also one of several recent fatal crop duster accidents reported in the United States recently.

Gill Pias was killed near Cheneyville Tuesday afternoon when his Air Tractor AT-502 plane crashed on an exit ramp on I-49.

Just a day before, in a non-fatal accident, an Air Tractor AT-502 “struck a wire in flight damaging the rudder and ground looped on landing” near Port Barre, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

There have been several accidents involving crop dusters across the United States in the last few days.

On Saturday, July 30, an Air Tractor AT-502 struck a powerline and caught on fire, then crashed in a field near Ute, Iowa.
On Friday, July 26, two cropdusters collided near Portland, Arkansas - which is less than 20 miles north of the Louisiana border - killing one of the pilots. The aircraft were both Air Tractor AT-802 planes.
On July 23, 2022, an Ayres S2R crashed while crop dusting in Parkin, Arkansas, killing the pilot.