Masthead.

Don’t Strike Out

FAA Safety Briefing Magazine
Cleared for Takeoff
4 min readFeb 28, 2024

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By Gene Trainor, FAA Aircraft Certification Service

Spring is a time when the aerial application industry in the U.S. ramps up for the planting, fertilizing, and spraying seasons. Helicopters play a key role.

Photo of a helicopter spraying a field.

But sometimes this work comes at a cost.

In June, July, and August 2023, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA reported 15 helicopter aerial application accidents, four of them fatal, along with 15 accidents the summer before, one of which was fatal. These accidents marked an increase from the 11 reported in the summer of 2021. The 2023 accidents sparked additional interest because three of the fatal accidents occurred on consecutive days: July 29, 30, and 31.

If you don’t need to be at a low altitude in the wire environment, stay out.

The summer 2023 accidents came at a time when the overall number of accidents involving U.S. registered helicopters dropped from 130 in fiscal year 2022 to 105 in 2023. The number of fatal accidents dropped from 21 to 18 during the same period.

Most of the summer 2023 aerial application accidents resulted from wire strikes. Wire strikes have been a safety issue for decades for all sectors of the helicopter industry.

Animation of a helicopter striking a power line.

The FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute sought to answer the causes of such accidents by conducting a focus group in 2022 with 22 agricultural operations pilots whose aircraft collided with wires during routine flights. The FAA researchers identified cognitive risk factors that included situational awareness (e.g., focused on another obstacle, distracted by a radio call); judgment errors (e.g., forgetting that a wire was there, misjudging proximity to wires); and pressure to perform well (internal or external). See the full report at bit.ly/WireStrikeStudy.

The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) has been committed to educating pilots about wire strikes through online and in-person wire safety courses, email, and magazine articles. NAAA also provides the Professional Aerial Applicator Support System (PAASS), a yearly safety education program created and presented by aerial application pilots at state and regional NAAA conferences.

“Wire strikes have always been an issue,” NAAA CEO Andrew Moore said. “We’re flying in a wire environment.”

The FAA, too, has been educating pilots about wire strikes, often joining with the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team. To that end, the FAA offers these wire avoidance tips:

🚁 If you don’t need to be at a low altitude in the wire environment, stay out.

🚁 During flight preparation, review any known wire installations on the planned flight path.

🚁 Familiarize yourself with the terrain, navigational charts, and obstacle heights. Crossing the same set of wires multiple times on the same flight requires sustained vigilance and caution to avoid them.

🚁 The flight path, sun angle, surrounding terrain, and weather conditions can make wires almost invisible. Instead, look for signs of supporting hardware (towers/poles) and other environmental cues (cleared trees/vegetation in straight lines).

🚁 Wires often run parallel or near roads, so assume wires are present if overflying a road.

🚁 Pay maximum attention to the flight path ahead (“eyes outside”) and avoid distractions.

🚁 In addition to electrical, look for all types of wires, such as transport cables, guy wires, and ski cables.

🚁 If a passenger is with you, use them as extra eyes to scan for wires.

🚁 Consider installing a wire strike protection system, or “wire cutters,” on the helicopter. This wire-chomping mechanism cuts through undetected wires coming in contact with the helicopter. Although this system does not prevent wire strikes, cutting through the intruding danger can be a lifesaver.

These video resources also are helpful for pilots operating in low-altitude environments:

  • Spotlight on Safety: You Cut It? (HAI)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el_pslX8HYE
  • Rotorcraft Cable Collision Avoidance (EASA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCJmP-8Gv1w
  • Avoiding Wire Strikes (FAA Tech Center)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqHLfhRhqNg

Gene Trainor is a technical writer/editor in the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service.

Magazine.
This article was originally published in the March/April 2024 issue of FAA Safety Briefing magazine. https://www.faa.gov/safety_briefing

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Cleared for Takeoff
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FAA Safety Briefing Magazine
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