SEA95LA139

The helicopter pilot was giving scenic rides, and elected to make a landing approach to a sand bar in the middle of a river. He stated that he scanned for wires at 300 feet elevation and saw nothing. He made a turn and slow approach to the sand bar. At about 10 feet height and 20 mph, he struck a cable used for an overhead trolley for crossing the river.

On July 4, 1995, approximately 1400 Pacific daylight time (PDT), a Hughes 369HS helicopter, N9196F, impacted a power cable while maneuvering over the Carbon River near Orting, Washington. The commercial pilot and his two passengers received serious injuries, and the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The FAR Part 91 local sightseeing flight, which was giving rides as part of a July 4th celebration in Orting, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed, and there was no report of an ELT activation.

According to the pilot, he had flown along the river bed a number of times that day, but at a higher altitude. On this trip he was lower and did not see the cable, which was estimated by local authorities to be about 30 to 50 feet off the ground. In a written statement, the pilot stated that he had overflown a sand bar and had elected to make a landing approach. He said he made a turn and a slow approach to the sand bar, which "looked very clean and free of obstructions." He settled in to the approach, estimating that his skid height was 10 feet and airspeed was about 20 mph.

The pilot stated that "the wire literally appeared from nowhere. It was about 1/2 inch in diameter and absolutely invisible to my trained eye. No towers, no buildings, nothing but wire emerging from dense foliage on each side of the river bed."