20170720012559A

The pilot was operating a helicopter, N192E, on the morning of July 20th 2017. He was performing aerial application in a field about 3 miles away from Logan, IA. After performing 2 reconnaissance passes, including an orbit around the target application area and noting no power lines posing a danger, the pilot began spraying the target field. He believes he was spraying east to west starting on the north side and working his way to the south. On the 4th pass, as he was obtaining altitude to fly over a tree, the helicopter struck the top line of a parallel set of lines (unknown to the pilot at the time). The left windshield blew in and the helicopter began to shake violently and enter a slight descent. The pilot added some collective to gauge the condition of the aircraft and arrest the descent. It did not respond as "normal". At this point the pilot decided an auto-rotation into the field would be best, based on the unknown condition of the aircraft and the vicinity of trees, houses and a major highway around the application area.

The glide-path he chose was directly ahead and into a side of a hill within the application area. After the initial impact, the helicopter came to rest on its right side. The engine was still running and the pilot could smell aviation fuel. He unbuckled the seat belt so he could reach the mixture control and kill the engine as well as switch off the master power. He then climbed out the top of the helicopter and began looking for his cellphone in order to call for help. The pilot was able to walk but was feeling pain in lowerback. After he made a call, employees from the company he was spraying for eventually were able to find him in the corn field about 30 minutes after the crash. The pilot decided that based on the pain in his back, he should seek medical attention and was driven to the hospital where he spent a couple days.

After talking with several people who were at the accident site post crash; the pilot learned that the impact with the power-lines had sheered off a major portion of the landing gear (found near the downed power line) and had caused the spray tank to hang precariously from the bottom of the helicopter. Probably aft of CG (the spray tank was located about 20-30 ft aft of the helicopter crash). More than likely causing the pilot to feel a "lack" of control or "normalcy" when applying collective after the initial hit

Airbourn aviation out of Mississippi was operating the helicopter, midwest airspray out of Iowa had subcontracted the job to airbourn. Midwest airspray owned the helicopter but airbourn was leasing and operating it. The accident did not get reported right away as there was some miscommunication between the owner and operator, each of them thought the other had done the reporting to the FAA. A discussion was had and counseling provided to the operator that according to NTSB 830 its the operators responsibility to get the accident reported.