Wire Strike Cessna 310 

I'll never understand how things like this are allowed to stand. That's absolutely a lethal hazard that should have not existed, and for there to be a school there that wasn't kicking up a fuss is mind boggling.

The fact they didn't have the wire buried nor have at the very least an aerial marker ball is criminal. Good to hear it's buried now and you guys are ok but that's as close as it gets. We flew a 1955 C310 and P model for over 25 years, LOVE the 310's. Keep the 310 vids coming

Glad you guys are alright..AND yes, THEY SHOULD BE responsible for the damage to your plane. It BLOWS MY MIND..that anybody thought this was proper airport/RUNWAY ‘construction’ and that it WASN’T a literal “accident WAITING TO HAPPEN”.

This is massively egregious! I'm glad you made it out OK! This is why my instructor (an old long time pilot turn CFI) made it a point to circle me around the airport and ask me what I saw. My first time around, I didnt notice power lines (as they normally wouldnt have been an obstruction) and he pointed it out: "It might be marked, it might not be marked. At the end of the day "I didn't see it" won't bring you back." He made it a point for us to fly around a proposed airport and look for hazards and obstacles that we might not have expected in the Pilot Brief. I have a feeling he saw (or experienced!) the same thing you experienced a few times in his years and didn't want any of his students to experience the same. I want to make it clear, I'm not making any slight against you at all, just expanding on that while what the airport, TC, and TSB was near criminally negligent, we do carry a responsibility to ourselves and pax to be especially cautious and careful landing in unfamiliar airports. Your story will help many others keep a sharper eye when on approach. Thank you for sharing!

It actually takes more than an accident to get things improved. Transport Canada were initially uninterested in the problem despite raising a report and contacting, well, contacts! It took a telephone call to the TSB to set a fire going. After that the Montreal TSB and TC staff went at it and got the wire taken down. I was so incensed that a wire would escape all means of being identified in what was clearly the flight path that I kept pressing for action.

The worst part of this tale is it brings doubt to all the published information in the CFS! this could have ended so much worse! thanks for sharing. I remember something I was told when I started flying. "Learn from other's mistakes, because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself!" Thank you for posting this!

The response and comments to this video have been stunning! Thank you for all the support. I am sorry I wont be able to respond to everyone but I have read all of your comments.

Being as I was a high voltage lineman for over 30 years, Wires have always scared me because I know the strength that they can carry. I use google earth and foreflight to look these rural airports over before the flight and I usually orbit the area with one pass looking for things just like you encountered. I am glad it did not flip your aircraft or rip the wing off which it could have easily. Fly Safe My Friend

"All roads have wires"...taught to every Army Aviator since the beginning of aviation time. Glad you lived to talk about it

What a story! Sorry this happened to you but so glad you’re such a competent and thoughtful pilot… thank you for posting and glad you have been able to put this behind you and press on to your future adventures!!

Also lots of people have been asking why no balls marking the wires. The simple reason is that the wires are too close to even be allowed to remain with balls on them. The electrical company also charges airports or individuals for installing the balls. This was why flying operations were not meant to continue until the wire had been removed. A number of local runways and private strips have had issues with the electrical companies replacing electrical poles with much large ones increase heights of wires to as much as 80 AGL. I know a number of individuals who have struggled with this occurring off the end of their runway but its always been dealt with. In this case power was running to the hangars down the access road. I believe that it was strung across the runway by the electrical company to another property with no regard for aviation safety. The airport was stuck trying to get it removed but also not wanting to have their operations stopped until that had occurred.

Glad you’re still with us. Amazing story

Man, that’s scary. Glad we didn’t loose another fellow aviator!

I think they are liable for your damage. That was not a marked or approved obstruction.

Compelling production and nicely edited too. I’m ashamed to admit that, in comparison, my preflight prep could use a lot of improvement, so I’m taking notes here. I have no doubt this video save lives in the future. Thank you for sharing your story!

Excellent information. We're glad you lived to tell the tale. Thanks !!!

One of the most common sizes for a wooden pole of that type is a 35 class 5 - which requires a buried depth of 5.5ft, leaving 29.5 ft above ground obstacle. At 500 ft from the threshold, that wire protrudes well into a typical 3 degree approach angle.

Wow! The entitlement of the power company is surreal! The lawsuit from a crashed plane and death would be ghastly!

Wow, well done for saving the crew and the plane.

As a beginner piolet I can understand how much pride as a piolet you probably take in your calculations and performance. Thanks for sharing this video and opening yourself up so we could learn something.

Thanks for sharing this! I've shared this video with all of my local flying friends to reinforce (as you described) how important it is to be vigilant and do the proper planning for every flight. Clearly things can fall through the cracks and that extra look can make a big difference. Praise be to Penny for keeping you safe!

It boggles the mind. The power company likely broke all sorts of rules when they put the line in place. Even if no rules were broken common sense should have kicked in. You can’t put an obstruction in the landing pattern. Then the managers at the airport should have been raising Cain with the power company and reporting the situation to the local and national authorities. Pilots based at the field should have been raising Cain with the airport managers and the local government agencies.

Wow! Scary story. I'm very glad you were all OK and the aircraft has been returned to flight.

You are so lucky. I can't imagine what they were thinking stringing up that wire in that location, utterly ridiculous. Whoever "they" are, it seems they are liable for cost of repairs.

Thanks for sharing your story, super happy everyone is alright and you're flying!

Glad to see you got FFEK flying again! I know Dave will be happy to see that!

Thank you for this report. I'm from there and now live in Texas. The government controlled utility, hydro Quebec is appalling in their lack of response, and accident prevention mentality.

thats crazy. glad youre alright though. enjoyed the debrief +sub

Thank You for sharing, glad your ok! Hope you can be compensated from the town and engineers.

That was a strike that should have never happened. Criminal negligence by whomever was responsible to permit that wire over the runway including the power company who strung it back up. Flat lighting conditions will make wires visibly disappear. Do hope you pursued a legal remedy for your expenses if no compensation was offered. So close to being your final final.

Glad you landed OK. And glad you got the old gal fixed. Those old machines are becoming more rare every year.

Sounds like a great place to learn to fly. "Hey, we know you are a brand new student who never flew - but we have a wire of death at the end of the runway just to keep you on your toes.. So as you're thinking of 3000 things at one time while trying to fly the plane, takeoff/land- remember there is a wire there. Good luck!".

CFS not making a critical change on flight maps in a timely manner? Who holds that organization to the flame?? The airport should help with those repairs as far as I'm concerned. And why shouldn't it be mandatory to have wires buried initially? Especially at an airport runway. Great video! Glad to see everyone walked away unscathed! Thumbs up and subbed 👍

This must have been terrifying. Thank God you made it down safely.

One would think that the wires run underground! At the very least, they should be properly marked, absolutely negligent on their part! Outrageous! So glad you were able to land safely!

Man that was a painful story and it didn't even cost me anything. Scary, but glad that ship held together for you and your pax.

Wow so incredible you made it. I will relate that it takes a few deadly accidents to move the wires. My father in the 70s an ntsb investigator in the San Fernando Valley investigated a few fatal and wire hits at the end of the runway at Wittman Airport.. they actually had wires 50ft from the threshold . They kill someone and put it back up. Kill somebody else and put it back up....etc. drove him crazy trying to get the lines moved. 20 years later they moved them.

Glad you’re safe. I hope that the airport in question compensates you for the damages to your aircraft.

GR8T. You discovered the problem. It was somebody else. Good flying... you RoCk. Cheers from So. CA. USA

How can they not have a ball on a wire that crosses a runway approach?

Glad you see youre alright! I remember this plane based out of Niagara until a summer or 2 ago

Glad you're OK!

Thank you. Will share with many.

That really surprises me the wire just broke! I’m glad it did but wow! And you didn’t notice you had hit something!

Yes…wires are not visible except in perfect conditions. I had a flying buddy hit some high tension lines. They did not break, but caused his plane to decelerate to almost zero, then drop to the ground nose first. He survived with serious leg injury. After that incident, he never got his mojo back. He bought another plane, but was just to psychologically damaged to fly it….he would just wax it in the hanger. As a float plane pilot, I have landed in coves only to discover after landing….there were uncharted wires on my approach path. After the second incident, I quit float flying….the fear of the invisible got to me.

Just subbed. Unfreaking believable that that KNOWN error was there to dang near kill you. Fine & educational vid. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Seeing that it was unmarked and no notam makes it a liability for the airport! They should have had some responsibility in that!😮

Who thought it was a good idea to 1) put a wire across the end of a runway 2) install wind turbine ANYWHERE near an airport. Absolutely insane

I'm so glad you made it out of this situation safely. I was imagining myself hitting a wire in the Cherokee and I came to the same conclusion, I'd probably be dead. Several years ago I read an article about obstruction heights being unreliable on approach plates, specifically treetop heights on terrain and it just goes to show that the documents we rely on are often wrong or misleading. I really believe that all wires should be marked with appropriate visual identification devices, like those orange balls on transmission lines, regardless of height, if it's on the final approach course they should be marked.

Happy wire-strike anniversary lol. Thanks for sharing.

Unbelievable! Glad it wasn't fatal. Unforgivable to not have that issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time. Skal ... ^v^

My brother was a hot air balloon pilot & I flew with him many times over several years. He always recruited _everyone_ in the basket to look for powerlines on approach because they are _very_ difficult to see from the air. They tend to blend in with the ground.

An important story of your experience, and well told. Your skills (and some good luck e.g being in the 310) certainly saved a dreadful accident. But I'm curious. Repairs must have been a substantial cost. Did you file for compensation for the error and negligence? If so, which organization, and were there any consequences for the people who messed up? Fly safely.

I have had a fascination with aviation for as long as I can remember. Interestingly enough, I've also had countless flying dreams that turn into nightmares of hitting power lines!

Holy hell. You said it at the end - you were mere inches away from a much more serious event.

The thing I'm most impressed with is how well your noise canceling mic works while flying.

Sorry to hear. I had a 310d for many years. If I can be of any technical assistance please let me know.

Glad you made it all right ,I've seen that in many small airports in central florida

Glad you survived but damn!...the fact that there are people that thought stringing a wire in that location was acceptable is beyond me. You did everything right, so who is to be held responsible? You're correct, if you were flying a single engine you most likely wouldn't be around to post this video! Airports should be checked from coast to coast, approaches photographed and reports must include an individuals signature certifying that all criteria has been met and conditions updated. Wow!

These wires are extremely strong and could rip open an airplane like a hot knife through butter! I'm going to go out on a limb and say you must of hit this perfectly with your prop because the tension we put on the wires would scare you and you getting through it doesn't make sense to me! I'm glad you are here to tell your story brother because I've seen up close and personal what these wires can do to sheet metal and steel. I've seen a 28ft loaded Uhaul truck suspended off the ground dangling between two power poles in Tennessee, we cut the wires and let it fall the rest of the way down the mountain!

Both negligence and a willful disregard for the safety, is what that airport management are guilty of. Did your insurance go after them for the damages? Are you going to seek compensation for the damages? Cheers from Winnipeg.

Thanks for posting and well done. It is really upsetting how the aviation regulator in this country has been totally stripped of its ability to actually function and enforce properly. As a result, aviation in Canada is becoming the “Wild West”. I am sure you see evidence of that in the maintenance world as well. The airport operator should be held accountable. I also see a large in crease of “PPR” noted in the CFS. At one obviously public airport I asked why the PPR comment in the CFS? The response was “so we are not liable for anything unless you have written permission, which nobody obtains.” How pathetic is that?

As a non-pilot I'm shocked there isn't some kind of minimum safety standard that all airports are required to meet which would preclude this sort of thing.

Me: helo pilot for 45 years. When I first saw the headline I went to pilot error. Glad I watched it. NOT pilot error and I hope the airport paid for the repairs. That was criminal..

Wow, absolutely crazy story.

Scary, glad your ok

Thank God you are OK. I agree with another poster that either the airport authority or the power company should be responsible for the costs to repair your aircraft.

What are the extrusions above the cowling air intakes? Never seen anything like that before... Thanks!

Consider habitually flying steep approaches. I fly one engine planes (for decades) and always fly steep final approach (so steep, in fact, that I imagine tower controllers gathering at the windows facing 27R (at KOAK) to watch whenever I RTB!), considering it practice for when my one engine stops providing thrust and becomes ballast. It keeps you higher for longer and consequently with more clearance from ground gotchas. Plus you practice engine out landing every time. You just start roundout and flare a little higher. You can also fly final faster as energy will be bled off with higher roundout & flare. Just a thought. Cheers!

At least you got your moral vindication.

Im not a Pilot but I work in the Aviation Industry as a Crash Firefighter ( ARFF ) and it says a lot of how strong those C-310's must be made . Yes plenty of damage yet it stayed together and you made a good landing after with no effects on controls , engines etc . Tough aircraft , she saved the day . In my eyes she is a keeper 🙂. It would have been nice maybe if the power company had put some of those orange balls on the power cable to make it more visible as it is right at the end of a runway . Just my take on it as from the footage and picture it is hard to spot that cable .

What a nightmare!

THATS CRAZY CLOSE! WIRES across the runway approach!! Govt failure!

Wow. thank you for sharing. You are indeed lucky to have survived that. I had a good friend die in a 172 along with the mother of three children and their father watched due to a similar unmarked and unlisted cable TV/internet wire that had been strung weeks before the incident by a cable TV company. There were lawsuits filed and I believe settled for an undisclosed amount. Basically someone strung up a death trap for pilots, and in the U.S. I suspect attorney might be keen to consider the case buy in Canada it might be a bit different. I grew-up flying a 310C (666T) and a 320 (320BG) I sold to a friend in Alberta. and am looking forward to watching your other 310 videos. I had a near miss of a wire in Washington State in the 310C coming into a short, gusty crosswind strip with an unmarked wire while making a low approach to hit the numbers. Lucky I caught the flash of the wire and was able bob over it at the last min. I also had an incident one where one of the small diameter steel pins that hold the upper section of nose gear down-lock corrode and fail and on retraction the nose tire retracted through the gear doors jamming the nose wheel, I also hear a loud "BANG", the panel jolted and I felt it in my feet. After fly-by and a few cycles the nose gear dislodged and I got a green light and landed and after jacking it was obvious that with one side of the down-lock failed the nose gear was unsafe and it was lucky it did not fold on landing. We noticed no apparent damage to the nose-gear actuator or tube. The actuator system on the 310 seems pretty robust and I'm not sure a failed gear down micro-switch would cause the the failure you suspected, but rather added stress as in Bonanzas and Barons. I think you might also NOT get a green 'Down' Indication. There's a few other quirks and stories I recall from the 310 I could share, like the time a piston stuck due to the wrong size pistons being installed causing a sudden engine stoppage and the propeller departing on departure and ending up in the Columbia river that was similar to your belief you had a spinner coming apart. Thanks again.

I'm glad that you guys are okay and it sucks that it happened but I thought and I know that this is in Canada and I live in the U.S. that the airports would have at least a marker ball on the powerlines so that pilots can see them better. I know we have them here at all of the airports and airstrips here in Minnesota in fact there's a little airstrip a few miles away and they have the red marker balls on the powerlines there and also there's a airstrip up in brainerd MN by one of the biggest resorts there and they have the marker balls there.

Now that is a scary story !

Quite the story, glad you are here to tell it! Your minimum maneuvering speed in the 310 at gross and all dirty would be 104 mph....... that 95 is a little light....

What?! You did a low pass over the runway? Well... good thing it was in Canada and not the US or the FAA would have had your certificate!

Its interesting how all the wires can be buried underground in new neighborhoods - electricity, internet, phone, cable, fiber optics, but this one wire at the threshold of the airport runway cant be buried. ???

When they restrung the wire, they could at least have put some wire markers... As they should have done from day1

I don't understand how anything that presents a hazard to flight can be near an airfield nor how whoever put it there does not have liability for the damage, especially in any district that has"zoning" laws.

Good post, thank you.

That's criminal neglect. Whoever is in charge of that field should be in jail.

Why no video of the incident?

Infuriating! So very lucky!

Unbelievable incompetence by everyone but you. Sounds like you did it right.

Woa! You are lucky! I am curious if you could answer a few questions. 1) What was the total tally for the damage? 2) Did you go through your insurance or out of pocket? 3) Was there a lawsuit considering the cost of the damage and the devaluation of the aircraft? To me there was clearly some negligence.

Wow glad you were ok. Great vid. This reminded me of my bush flying days and having to detect unmarked wires across narrow bays or rivers. All you can do is try to spot the poles. At an airport tho? Not even orange balls? Nasty trap. OT: does your Musketeer have wing VGs? If not, are you aware of any Musketeer owners that have VGs? I own a Pazmany PL-2 that has the same airfoil (same NACA 6 series section, different thickness) and would like to add my own VGs, and I want to copy a Musketeer's installation dimensions so I don't have to experiment with chordwise location.

Give the power company the repair bill. They owe you for the repairs because the wire was not marked with an orange ball at the end of the runway.

Time to sign up for the navy? 😬 Joking aside, and I don’t know you but glad it didn’t end up worse for you. Very bad form not to have the airfield information updated immediately for something like that and the power company not making the line more visible.

Very thorough reportage! A shame it takes an accident to rectify things on the ground! Flight supplement I assume will be updated as Transport investigation would produce a report?

Has it been moved? Doesn't seem right to me.

ive been there once, happy to see that cfs isnt always 100% right

😢 One of my favourite local airports (Vernon CYVK) has a gas station and a power line under the final approach for runway 23, but it's done right. Everything is marked, the displaced threshold and PAPI are suitable, and the CFS is accurate.

Unbelievable that the power lines were not marked with " orange marker ball's " ! I've rarely seen power lines cross a airport landing strip.

At least you didn't hit it with your face, like I did, to a 7,200 volt line on a dusk landing in a hang glider in 1978. Still flying !

Very sobering and scary story. I’m relieved you guys were ok and I’m very sorry about your aircraft damage. What was your insurance carriers position on the accident?

If there was ever a place for 5 or 6 of those orange 'visibility balls' we see on power transmission lines in the states, this was it.

Wow, that airport needs some serious wire marker updates.

I'm not a pilot but that seems like a CRAZY place for a wire.