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Aircraft Striking Radio/TV Towers

H

Habu

Guest
Just out of morbid curiosity, how often do aircraft strike Radio/TV or even Cell Towers. I would think that this is a fairly rare occurence, but I know its happened a few times over the years... I don't think a commercial aircraft has ever struck a tower (at least in the last 40 years) But Private aircraft, including helicopters and balloons have. Any body have stories to relate on this subject...?
 
As I recall, an Air Force fighter jet clipped a guy wire in Florida about 4-5 years ago?!?

I also recall a private single engine clipping a guy in Nebraska. In Florida, I recall the tower came down, in Nebraska, the tower survived, but needed quick repairs.
 
I seem to recall an old movie about a jet airliner clipping either a guy wire, or the tower itself. This caused the plane to come down into deep waters and the passengers aren't able to escape.

Anyone know what flick I am talking about?

R
 
OH.. That was a cheesy 70s disaster movie.. Airport 77... Jimmy Stewart was a rich old coot, loaded his family and a bunch of valuable paintings in the cargo hold and Mr Brady(Robert Reed) and some other guys tried to steal them. Long story short, they wound up hitting an oil derrick tower crashing into the water, and sinking.. Then some guys had to rescue them from underwater, I could just see the mounds of coke being poured in some producers office while they were germinating this klunker...

Hey, Dino, heres the pitch... a 747 ... snifffffff...
Crashes into a Radio...sniffff, wait TV....snifff wait.... An oil derrcik, yeah thats the ticket..

sheesh....

Anyways, the reason I brought this up, was that a few years back I read in the paper the same thing happening to some station in Pennsylvania, not sure which one, I think it was in the Lehigh Valley, Allentown maybe? And was curious how much of a phenomenon is this...
 
Baloon hit the WHAS tower a few years ago.

NC a fighter jet hit a guy wire on an unlit tower.

Wires are a big problem for planes in general because they can't see them.

Planes are flown by professionals. Except fighter planes. Mainly 20 year old boys who mainly want to go real fast.

Saw a set of harriers pass by the WFIE tower in Evansville a few years back. Thought for sure thye would take the tower down.
 
A tower in Clarksdale, MS was hit by a plane back in the 70's. My father was a firefighter on duty at the time and has told me about the story a few times but I really don't remember allot of the details. I believe several houses were involved. It was terrible scene.

JBI may be able to provide the story.
 
On August 23, 1976, at 10:32 PM a airplane spraying mosquitoes hit the tower of WJBI, Clarksdale. Several, including the pilot, died.
That was a lot of damage on the ground.
Earlier that day, the pilot had been made aware of the structure, which was 199 feet high, and unlit.
Apparently, he lost his orientation or forgot about it. He struck it at approximately 175 feet.
Bear in mind this is inside the city of Clarksdale, population 20,000. Scary.
 
jboyd said:
On August 23, 1976, at 10:32 PM a airplane spraying mosquitoes hit the tower of WJBI, Clarksdale. Several, including the pilot, died.
That was a lot of damage on the ground.
Earlier that day, the pilot had been made aware of the structure, which was 199 feet high, and unlit.
Apparently, he lost his orientation or forgot about it. He struck it at approximately 175 feet.
Bear in mind this is inside the city of Clarksdale, population 20,000. Scary.
Click to expand...

Why was it unlit?

R
 
Lights not required in urban areas on towers less than 200 ft., except in congested (approach) areas. This structure approved by FAA prior to construction. Note that the pilot was made aware of it's existence.
 
There have been a lot of them actually.
Recently, ones which come to mind...

There was one in Quebec. The plane became entangled in the top portion of the tower. The plane and pilot's body were trapped up at the 700 foot level of the tower before it was razed.

A black hawk helicopter hit the KXXV tower in Kileeen, TX , destroyed the helicopter, killed seven on board.

More recent was the plane which hit the WFXL tower near Albany, GA. (This was the famous video of the tower coming down that ended up taking the next door tower of WALB down).
 
jboydingram said:
Lights not required in urban areas on towers less than 200 ft., except in congested (approach) areas. This structure approved by FAA prior to construction. Note that the pilot was made aware of it's existence.
Click to expand...

Interesting... I did not know the FCC didn't require lighting in those situations. Is this still the case? If so, a revision is required. A pilot may know the Lat & Lon of a tower, but when you're flying in total darkness, the potential to hit the tower is exceeded. What happens if the pilot loses his on-board instrumentation? He's literally flying blind.

R
 
Pilots must have additional training or they cannot fly under IFR rules (instrument rules).

Here is what is required:
Candidates for the instrument rating must be knowledgeable in IFR-related items in the AIM, the U.S. ATC system and procedures, IFR navigation, the use of IFR charts, aviation weather, requirements for operating under IFR conditions, recognition of critical weather, Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) and Crew Resource Management (CRM).
Candidates must also pass the FAA instrument rating knowledge test with a score of 70% or better.

Flight experience and training
Accumulate flight experience per FAR 61.65:
Have 50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command, which can include solo cross-country time as a student pilot. Each cross-country must have a landing at an airport that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 NM from the original departure point. Cross-country flight procedures must include at least one cross-country flight that is performed under IFR and consists of a distance of at least 250 NM along airways or ATC-directed routing, an instrument approach at each airport, three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems (ILS, LOC, VOR, ADF, GPS)
The candidate also needs a total of 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time, including 15 hours of instrument flight training from a Flight Instructor certified to teach the instrument rating (CFII)
Up to 20 hours of the instrument training may be accomplished in an approved flight simulator or flight training device if the training was provided by a CFII.
Within 60 days of the practical test, the candidate needs to log 3 hours of instrument training from a CFII in preparation for the test.
Receive and log training, as well as obtain a logbook endorsement from your CFII on the following areas of operation: preflight preparation, preflight procedures, air traffic control clearances and procedures, flight by reference to instruments, navigation systems, instrument approach procedures, emergency operations, and postflight procedures.
Successfully complete the instrument rating practical test (and oral and flight test), as specified in Practical Test Standards (PTS) for the instrument rating, which will be conducted by an FAA designated examiner.

Operations requiring an instrument rating
A pilot must have an instrument rating in order to act as Pilot in Command of a flight below VFR weather minimums and/or under IFR. The rating is also required:

When flying an airplane under Special VFR at night (helicopters are excepted from the regulation.)
When flying an airplane carrying passengers for hire, on flights in excess of 50 nautical miles or at night.
 
Wow,

This has happened with a higher frequency than I thought. Thanks to all the posters with the great info.
I think I saw a sight once that had some more info on this subject, and I'll post if I find it...
 
Why are all R/R crossings not equipped with lights.
Why are cars not prohibited from going over 60MPH?
Because, reason dictates that you can regulate so much that many facets of life would become almost impossible. At some point, persons must be responsible for good judgement and following what rules may exist...I.E., take some responsibility for their own safety . One thing we do not need is more government regulations, lest we be relegated to the "OSHA Horse" syndrome. Just a thought....Thanks
 
Have private pilot that keeps flying a cessna near a tower east of indy.

Many times he has "buzzed" the tower when workers are on it. He flies by at the level of the tower, many times within a hundred feet or less of the tower. He also drives by and yells at tower workers.

Tower predates his airplane antics.

FAA won't do anything. They say this is not something they regulate. We just keep waiting for this idiot to take the tower down.
 
WZAZ "Where disco lives on" A boeing 707 sounding like a propeller plane, hits this tower on final approach in the movie "Airplane" Here in Florida in the last 20 years, I know of at least 6 accidents where aircraft including helicopters hit towers.
 
Again.. this is really blowing my mind. When you think about it, and antenna is almost like a needle in a haystack, so to strike one in air is something that you would think would be a once in alife time happening, apparently we have over 10 instances here, thanks to all our contributors. I wonder how many of these instances were towers under 200' (because they aren't required to be lit)
Balloons I can understand striking towers, because they are at the winds mercy, but a powered aircraft, thats something else. And BTW... I did a little more research, the tower that was hit was WODE-FM in Easton PA, I believe it is a 475' tower near an Airport, and apparently that tower was unlit at the time of the accident.. Wow, that has to be a major lawsuit or what.. Not too sure of all the details, this is the few crumbs I picked up on line. Also, I did see that tower strike in Florida and California as well on line. I am still trying to find that website w/ links to tower strikes.. It might be on Scott Fybush's site...

Thanks again to one and all, this is a pretty interesting discussion..
 
A couple Idaho Air Guard pilots that "buzzed" a tower array, flying between the center 2 towers, were given desk jobs. A picture taken by an engineer was worth a thousand words.

What the private pilot was doing probably violated minimums and action should have been taken by the FAA. Maybe the pilot knew someone important.

From the FAA website:

Safety
Safety Hotline
Call our 24-Hour Safety Hotline at (800) 255-1111 to report:
Maintenance improprieties
Low-flying aircraft
Aircraft incidents
Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) violations
 
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