What happened
During the fifth spraying pass of an agricultural operation, the pilot elected to fly beneath power lines estimated to be suspended between 35 and 40 feet above the ground. As the airplane passed under the lines at a wheel height of approximately 18 inches above ground level, the left main landing gear became entangled with a broken static wire. This wire was dangling from the top of a 65-foot pole.
The static wire had been previously severed by another aircraft. Following a power interruption the previous evening, the utility company had pulled the wire off the ground and temporarily tied it off, leaving one section of the cable suspended approximately 6 feet above the ground.
Upon entanglement, the pilot reported that the aircraft experienced an abrupt deceleration as the landing gear was torn from the airframe. The aircraft impacted the ground in a slight nose-low attitude and skidded for 190 feet before coming to a complete stop. At the time of the accident, the downed static line remained unmarked, and neither the property owner nor the operator of the aircraft that originally cut the wire had been notified of the hazard.