WPR19TA061

During the nighttime visual flight rules flight, with no moon illumination, the commercial pilot was surveying a field to establish visual contact with reported power transmission wires prior to conducting an aerial application. The wires spanned the field along a west/easterly heading. While on a northerly heading, the pilot flew over the field and did not provide adequate separation from the wires. Subsequently the helicopter struck the wires at an altitude of about 30 ft above ground level and impacted terrain.

On January 11, 2019, about 2100 mountain standard time, a Bell 206 B helicopter, N88HC, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Yuma, Arizona. The commercial pilot was seriously injured. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight. The operator reported that the pilot had been spraying fields at night for about 2 hours. The pilot was advised of wires in a field he was about to spray, and before loading, he flew to the field to look for them. As he was flying north over the field, the helicopter collided with the east/west spanning wires that were about 30 ft above the ground. The wires wrapped around the mast, and the helicopter subsequently collided with the ground and came to rest inverted. The pilot reported that he never saw the wires and that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. The operator reported that this accident could possibly have been prevented if the field had been surveyed during daylight hours. According to the US Naval Observatory, on the night of the accident, sunset occurred at 1752 and civil twilight occurred at 1819 mountain standard time. The moon rose at 0302 and set at 1412.