2003 Piper PA-36-375 accident near Malagón (EC-FBA)

Overview and flight details On Wednesday, 15 October 2003, at 10:45 local time, a Piper PA-36-375 with registration EC-FBA was involved in an accident in the vicinity of Malagón, Ciudad Real, Spain. The aircraft was powered by a single Lycoming IO-720-D1CD engine. The operation was classified as aerial work, and the accident occurred during the maneuvering phase of flight. ## Circumstances The pilot, a 56-year-old commercial pilot with 15,000 total flight hours and 10,000 hours on type, had departed at 08:30 from a temporary strip at Fuenllana to transfer to Fuente el Fresno, both in the province of Ciudad Real. Using Fuente el Fresno as the operating base, the aircraft was to support another aircraft in spraying work against the olive fruit fly in fields in the Malagón area, near Los Quiles. Spraying began at 09:30 after takeoff from Fuente el Fresno. To maximize the number of olive trees treated per pass and reduce the number of passes, the pilot flew over the olive groves at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to a high-voltage power line crossing the property. The line had spans of about 250 to 300 meters, and the cables were about 8 meters above the ground at the lowest point of the catenary. After about one hour, during the fourth pass, while attempting to cross beneath the power line, the vertical fin and the tip of the left wing struck the cables. The impact caused the complete rudder to separate. As a result, directional control of the aircraft was lost. The pilot then decided to make an emergency landing in an adjacent field. The landing was made with the aircraft in an attitude with a high left sideslip angle. After the landing gear first contacted the ground, it broke, and the aircraft then dragged for about 44 meters, supported by the fuselage and the right wing, causing serious damage to its underside. It finally came to rest approximately 170 meters from the power line. The pilot, wearing a protective helmet, left the aircraft under his own power without any notable injury, a result that may have been aided by the proper functioning of the seat belt. ## Damage The aircraft sustained major damage. Reported damage included a broken protective glass on the left wing landing light, a broken and detached rudder, a rudder detached from its anchor and broken, a destroyed landing gear, a broken leading edge and underside of the right wing at its tip, detached and broken spraying booms, engine damage, and a propeller with bent blades and broken tips. ## Crew and aircraft information The pilot held a commercial pilot license for airplanes with ratings for single-engine land and visual flight. He was also authorized for agroforestry aerial operations under Royal Decree 1684/2000. The authorization application had been submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on 8 February 2001, and the grant was notified on 14 August 2001. On the day of the accident, the pilot had been flying for 1 hour and 40 minutes, spread over four flights. Previously, he had been on standby without flying, and his last flying period had been on 13 October for 1 hour and 50 minutes. During the 30 days before the accident, he had logged a total of 24 hours and 5 minutes. The aircraft had a valid airworthiness certificate until 25 June 2004 and had accumulated 3,761:55 flight hours. The last 100-hour inspection had been carried out on 22 September 2003, at 3,744:30 total accumulated hours. ## Pilot statement and analysis In his statement, the pilot said that during the passes he crossed the power line from below, believing he had sufficient space. During the fourth flight, as he was about to cross beneath the cables, he became aware of a blow to the rear of the aircraft and immediately realized he had no directional control, as the aircraft was turning without his input. He tried to straighten the direction and correct the course by adding power, and although the aircraft initially seemed to respond, given the uncertainty of the subsequent trajectory and the suitability of the completely clear field around him, he decided to make an emergency landing. Analysis of the pilot's statement indicated that the aircraft's trajectory after the impact with the power line was a gentle and continuous turn to the left, not due to pilot control inputs. Given that the rudder and rudder remnants, although detached, were found near the aircraft, it was concluded that their complete separation did not occur until impact with the ground. Examination of the aircraft's protective cable, which runs from the cabin roof to the top of the rudder, revealed a first damaged point that had absorbed the initial impact, fulfilling its protective role by preventing immediate separation of the rudder and rudder, thereby allowing some directional stability and time to make an emergency landing under acceptable conditions. Examination of the left wing tip, where the broken protective glass of the landing light was found under the cables and the upper surface showed abrasions, indicated that the electrical cable had contacted that part of the wing. For this to occur, the aircraft's attitude when crossing the line and striking the protective cable must have been a slight right bank with the left wing raised above the horizontal. This banked attitude suggests the pilot had not properly assessed the narrow space available beneath the cables, as that attitude compromises a larger surface area than straight flight, further reducing available space and increasing the likelihood of impact. It was possible that after several passes beneath the line, the pilot became complacent, failing to give sufficient importance to the aircraft's altitude and attitude at the moment of crossing the power line.