Light plane snagged in power lines in Bavaria

BBC News: Plane hits power lines in Germany

That had to suck just hanging there upside down waiting for either the wheel or cable to snap, thinking that even if you survived the plunge you'd stand a good chance of still being electrocuted.

Never would have thought power lines were that strong.

Wonder how they got the plane down?

There was another case of a power line dangling light plane in the States a few years back.

Anyone remember that US air force plane that was hot-dogging in the Italian Alps/Dolomites and went through a cable car’s cables. Plane occupants survived unscathed but cable car occupants all plunged to their deaths. It was amazing that the aluminum tail plane of the aircraft could cut through the steel cable.

Looks like the plane was flying almost parallel to the power lines. It hit the pylon first, which slowed it down, and then touched down on the cables slid along, and came to a fairly gentle halt. Powerlines are strong, aircraft are light. Amazing that it happened, but sounds entirely plausible how it could.

But yeah, real sword of Damocles situation there, waiting to either be either rescued or fall to their death.

Old fella now needs to go get his eyes checked and retake his pilot's license.

The pilot was hanging for two hours upside down next to his wife after making a serious navigational error.

Wish I had been a fly on the wall.

haha

Powerlines can handel a considerable weight and an Ultra light plane is no where near the weight that ice and snow would put on that line.

It looks like initially it was just hanging by one wheel and the later shot it seems that some kind of harness was attached incase the plane came loose. The plane’s joy riders look quite elderly. They are very lucky to be alive.

That was not an Ultra-Light (plane)- The registration shows that its "Echo-class" (as denoted by the first letter after the "D-")

1. 65 is not old & its not up to forum members to state whether a license needs to be retaken. Hans-Werner Grosse is 85 & still flies top gliders. Derek Piggott in UK is of similar age.
2. His vision will have been checked every 12 months.

It wasn't hot-dogging. The American airmaps didn't show those cables. He was flying below his floor but his maps showed him there was nothing there. The pilot was found not guilty for that. Those on the flight who were punished were found guilty of destroying evidence, erasing a videotape they'd made during the flight.

woof.

Only had a short look at the pic in the Abendblatt and had mistaken it for a zephyr(shot was head on).

Apparently they got a skilled pilot to fly it off the powelines. He landed it nearby with hardly a scratch on it.

I heard they got the power station to feed out some slack on the cables and the plane was gently lowered to the ground.

That's awesome! ... right up there with the apocraphal story of the rescue personnel arguing over how to extract a truck stuck under an overpass where a kid standing on the sidelines asked "why don't they just let the air out of the tires?" [I recently heard that a similar situation recently emerged in Poland].

I was seriously thinking about all sorts of pillows, block and tackle rigs, amazing stunt pilots being brought in, etc. ... God bless Germanic ingenuity!

Yeah but only after they turned the power back on and boosting the engine with 380,000 volts.

Apparently high voltage lines make a great aircraft hanger!