My colleague John Croft, who writes the great As the Cro(ft) Flies blog, has just forwarded me an NTSB report which details a tragic incident in which an agricultural pilot was killed when his light aircraft hit a meteorological tower that was gathering data for the future development of a wind farm.
I mention this because we recently ran a feature (also written by John) on the potential dangers to aviation of renewable energy projects such as wind farms. And this appears to be a case in point.
For further details on the incident, here's a link to the full NTSB report.
The met tower in question was lower than the US FAA threshold, yet according to the National Agricultural Aviation Association these towers are "nearly invisible under some atmospheric conditions".
I'm by no means an expert on this, but would it really be that difficult to make these towers a bit more visible? Just a thought.
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