This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
I was in the process of aerial application and was forced to cross a highway at low altitude because of aircraft weight and a cross-country power line.
I was coming south toward the highway and the power line spraying corn. As I approached the highway and wires I realized that I could not make it up and over the wire without hitting it.
I saw that there was sufficient room to go under the wire and avoid a wire strike and accident.
In doing so I had to cross in front of traffic on the highway at low altitude and a lot closer than I wanted to.
Once I knew I couldn’t make it over the wire, I was watching traffic and started a left turn to avoid the highway traffic and get to a better place to pass under the power lines.
Another contributing factor to this event is heavy haze in the area from the wildfire smoke. Because of the haze, depth perception with the power lines was off and they blended in with the haze in the area.
After this event I started pulling up a lot farther in advance and I am trying to avoid this situation ever happening again.
Chain or events: Aerial application and having to cross a highway with cars on it at low altitude and go under a wire.
Contributing factors were aircraft weight and speed, along with the smoke/haze causing the wires to blend in.
The corrective action is giving more room to wires and wire avoidance.
Human performance: My perception that the wires were farther away until it was too late to go over them caused me to make a judgment call and go under the wire and over the highway to avoid a collision with the power lines. The haze causing depth perception to be off didn’t help this situation.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 2020871
During my work as an elactrical lineman. I responded to a call about a plane hitting a powerline , a 2400 volt power line, and so.
checked it out. A crop duster pulled up ,a second too late and flipped over landing upside down in a grass field, the pilot was ok.and was sitting waiting for someone to check it out, he was ok. Uninjured. and no broken wires !!!! No outage!!
Been there, done that. You’re damned if you do and maybe dead if you don’t.
Yes I am an old duster who has had to fly under wires in order to get chemical on growing plants. Sometimes we have no choice as flying low alongside power lines endangers your wing due to 45* bracing wires perpendicular (90*) to highway and power wires. Sometimes farmers just don’t think of that.
Think of that as you are enjoying your salad. Someone does it.
My crop duster boss did a similar thing, only in a Piper Cherokee with 2 passengers. It was a small Midwest city airport with a grass runway at the time. We’d had some rain earlier in the day, leaving a shallow puddle about the midpoint. There was a highway and power line across the end of the runway. One of the passengers was a rather large man and the patch of water on the runway caused the takeoff roll to be longer than anticipated. He realized he wouldn’t clear the power line so he flew under it hitting a VW bug going highway speed. The tip tank stripped some chrome off the VW hood and left paint on the flat windshield but no other damage to the car. There was a scratch on one main gear wheel pant. He returned to the airport and landed with his passengers totally unaware anything unusual had happened. He paid the car owner for anticipated repair cost and delivered his passengers in another plane.
I commend both transparent narratives and candor but most importantly the lessons learned.
“There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but no old, bold pilots”. (Bold-foolish, not to be confused with brave pilots).
You did the right thing. Good job in judgment and airmanship!
When I was a kid I spent many summers back in the 50s with my Grandparents in Leland, Mississippi. Crop dusting in Stearman’s was the norm. It was not unusual to be driving downtown the highway and watch the pilot’s just zip right across the road under the wires routinely. I don’t recall of ever hearing of any accidents.
Dangerous flying. Similar thing happened to me without the cars while instructing. Off airport procedures and dumb instructor (me) not putting full attention on things only to look up and see power lines when the student said “What do I do?”. I.pushed the yoke forward and we went under the power lines and scared the daylights out of a farmer on his tractor. I landed in his field. Complete off airport procedure unintended. But we were lucky! Not only did we miss the wires, the farmer was quite friendly and invited us in. Those were friendly days. Lesson learned: do what you’re doing while you’re doing it! Could have been far worse. Instructor and student still fly. Whew!