Primary finding
Probable cause
Clearance was not maintained. A factor to the accident was: poor in-flight planning/decision.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
During an instructional flight, the flight instructor planned on buzzing the student's house. While flying over the corn field, the instructor was aware of the power lines that ran parallel to the field, but did not see the ones that ran perpendicular to the field and the airplane's flight path. The airplane struck the wires and was then flown back to the airport without further incident.
Source record
Factual narrative
On September 13, 1993, at approximately 1930 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 150L, N11882, collided with a power line during a low level flight maneuver near Silverton, Oregon. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed for the local instructional flight. The airplane was substantially damaged and the certificated flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. The flight had originated from Aurora, Oregon. The flight instructor reported that the student wanted to see his home from the air and the instructor stated that he planned to "buzz" the house. The instructor set up to fly down the center of a corn field and said that he saw the power lines that were parallel to the airplane's flight path, but did not see the ones running perpendicular to the flight path. The accident was not reported until September 24, 1993, when it was determined that there was structural damage to the airplane. -