Landing Accident from Inside the Cockpit

Seems like a very important item got left out of the talk that should have started out "Hey, I think I might come over and land on your private airstrip. Is that OK?"
 
Interesting from a legal standpoint ... whether or not you could sue the owner of the private strip even if you were making an unauthorized landing.
 
Man, even being a private airport and if someone were operating without permission, that power line looks like a huge liability hazard to me. I wonder if any litigation resulted from that crash. I think if it were my airport I'd spring for one or two of those big orange marker balls on that power line.

Out of curiosity, I was browsing through airnav to see if any of the grass strips around Monroe, MI looked like that, none did so I assume it is private..... but almost all of the published airports had powerline obstructions, one has one practically right on the runway.

(W87) - Obstructions: 30 ft. pline, marked, 15 ft. from runway
 
Looks like a small windmill from the quick shot of it, but the article said there were powerlines in the wreckage and power outages in the area.......
 
The pilot, 84-year-old Wilbert Matthes from Ida, Michigan and his co-pilot and grandson, 20-year-old Ian Zawacki of Monroe, reported to officials that, as they attempted to land, the landing gear of the plane caught a power line.
 
Why drag the approach? There's plenty of runway and a KitFox doesn't cross the threshold at 100mph...I've never flown one, just guessing there. If they were not frequent visitors of the strip or first timers, that's fine - but if they were, hmmm.
 
The pilot, 84-year-old Wilbert Matthes from Ida, Michigan and his co-pilot and grandson, 20-year-old Ian Zawacki of Monroe, reported to officials that, as they attempted to land, the landing gear of the plane caught a power line.

Not the "Three wire" you would want to hit
 
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Who in his right mind put something like that(obstacle) in the very short final approach of a runway???
 
All bets are off when you operate into and out of a private strip. No FAA mandate for the 20:1 approach clearance. My bets are the power line was there long before Farmer Joe took his bush hog to a strip of the field.
 
My guess is the power line was there first...

I don't think so, it looks like a small wind generator or something like that. This is like the case where everyone starts to build houses and business around century old airports and then start to complain that the noise is not acceptable finally getting to close the airport...........:bang:
 
Read the article and video description, the pilots said they hit their landing gear on the power line. If you pause it you can clearly see it's a small wooden T power pole.
 
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