A US Air Force OA-1K Skyraider II was damaged during a training flight in Oklahoma, the second accident involving the new special operations aircraft in less than a year.
The aircraft left the runway while landing at Sundance Airport in Oklahoma City on October 5. Both crew members are safe, according to the 492nd Special Operations Wing, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Flight tracking data showed that the OA-1K departed Will Rogers Air National Guard Base during the afternoon and spent several hours flying patterns before landing at Sundance. The aircraft veered left about halfway down the runway and stopped in the grass.
The Oklahoma City Fire Department reported that the aircraft went nose-down during the landing before returning to an upright position. Video recorded after the accident shows the OA-1K outside the runway with several propeller blades bent and tracks visible in the grass.
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The aircraft remained at Sundance the following morning while Air Force personnel documented the site and prepared to remove it.
The accident occurred only days after the OA-1K formal training unit began its first class of new pilots. The Air Force has not said whether a student pilot was aboard the aircraft.
Second accident since 2025
Another OA-1K was destroyed near Oklahoma City on October 23, 2025, during a training flight from Will Rogers.
An Air Force investigation later determined that the pilot undergoing training inadvertently activated the fuel shutoff valve, cutting fuel to the engine at about 2,300 feet above the ground.
The instructor took control after the engine lost power. During the forced landing, the OA-1K descended extremely low over a road, passed close to vehicles and struck two utility poles, three road signs and a barbed-wire fence before stopping in a field. Neither of the two crew members was injured.
Investigators valued the destroyed aircraft at US$17.9 million. They also identified task saturation, communication problems, ineffective crew resource management and ineffective task prioritization as contributing factors.
The OA-1K Skyraider II is derived from the Air Tractor AT-802 agricultural aircraft and was developed by Air Tractor and L3Harris for US special operations forces. It can perform close air support, precision strike and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The Air Force Special Operations Command accepted its first missionized OA-1K in April 2025. The single-engine turboprop is powered by a 1,600-shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67F and can carry weapons and sensors on 11 external stations.
US Special Operations Command originally planned to acquire as many as 75 aircraft under a contract with a ceiling of US$3 billion, although subsequent budget plans reduced the planned procurement. The fiscal 2027 program calls for initial operational capability later in the decade.
