Pilot of crop duster dies in crash near Arborfield

A crop duster pilot has been killed in a fiery crash near Arborfield.

The Cessna C-188B Agtruck belonging to Clayton Air Service went down Thursday around 3:30 p.m., according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Members of the Carrot River RCMP detachment, along with emergency crews and fire crews, responded to the scene, according to RCMP. Arborfield is about 260 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

A TSB spokeswoman said there was a “post-impact fire” and the pilot was found dead at the scene.

Investigators from the federal agency responsible for aviation safety, which is leading the probe, were expected to be on the scene Friday afternoon.

The crash is the second in Saskatchewan this week involving a crop duster.

A pilot was injured Tuesday when the helicopter he was using to spray a field struck a power line and crashed in the RM of Eye Hill, near the Alberta border.

Thursday’s crash is also the second crash involving Clayton Air Service in the last 12 months.

A 25-year-old pilot sustained serious injuries, and a Clayton Air Service-owned Air Tractor AT-502B was written off, when it crashed in a field near Aberdeen, east of Saskatoon on July 15, 2017.

The TSB subsequently determined that the pilot was concentrating on tasks inside the cockpit rather than looking out the window when he experienced a loss of “situational awareness” and crashed.

A Clayton Air Service representative who answered the company phone Friday declined to comment.