Sometimes a plane flys too low and stalls. No Darwin, too common. Occasionaly, a plane fails to spot power lines and snags on them, going down. No Darwin, power lines can be hard to spot.

But what about flying straight into a tree whilst flying too low to avoid power lines he knew were over the land he was spraying? But then, no-one would be that stupid, would they? Would they?...

Well, Alan F. Foster,44, certainly was, as he did just that.

Foster, a comercial pilot, trained to survey the area he fliys over, crashed his Allied Ag Cat Productions Inc., Grumman-164-B biplane on Aug. 11, 2004. He was flying low - too low - to avoid power lines over the soybean field he was spraying, witnessen said. He aparantly 'failed to notice' the frickin' great big tree 40 metres west of the lines, because he flew straight into it. Or maybe he did notice, and his plane stalled because he was flying it too low; the NTSB said flying too low contributed to the crash. So did pilot error, surprise, surprise (for those of you who didn't work that out).

Alan was pronounced dead at the scene. History does not record the condition of the tree; we hope it's superrior genes can still be passed on.

ORIGINAL VERSION

Pilot error cited in fatal crash
Published: 09/17/2005 1:59 PM - Associated Press

SIOUX CITY, IA - Pilot error led to a plane crash that killed an Adel man last year, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said. Alan F. Foster, 44, was spraying a soybean field near Moville on Aug. 11, 2004, when the plane crashed in a cornfield. Foster was pronounced dead at the scene.

The NTSB said Thursday that inadequate in-flight planning and failure to clear a large tree were the probably causes of the crash. Another contributing factor was low altitude flying, the NTSB said in its report, posted on the agency's Web site.

Foster, a commercial pilot, was flying a 1976 Allied Ag Cat Productions Inc., Grumman-164-B biplane.

A witness told investigators the plane was flying under high-voltage power lines, the NTSB said. The tree the plane hit was about 40 yards west of the power lines, the report said. The plane crashed to the ground and started on fire.

Foster had taken off from the Cherokee Municipal Airport earlier in the morning, but no flight plan had been filed. A report of a missing plane was filed with area police about 11:40 a.m. Two minutes later a medical helicopter spotted the wreckage.

P.S. This is my first atempt at writing up a news story - how did I do?

Submitted on 09/25/2005

Submitted by: Iain Macdonald
Reference:

Copyright © 2005 DarwinAwards.com

Jack said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
"Inadequate in-flight planning and failure to clear a large tree were the probably causes," according to the NTSB. Yep, sounds like a Darwin winner to me.

Kelly said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
You did just fine at writing the story :) thanks for the time and effort.

James said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
GREAT write-up!!! I'm with Jack and Kelly (and, I suppose, the NTSB). This fellow, a trained pilot who SHOULD have known better, certainly went above and beyond...