PILOT ERROR WAS THE CAUSE OF DEADLY PIPER PA 32R-300 PLANE CRASH ONTO A WIND TURBINE THAT KILLED 4 IN SD. FAULTY WIND TURBINE LIGHT LIKELY CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.

APRIL 22, 2015

ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) 

Federal investigators say pilot error and a non-functioning light atop a wind turbine are probable causes of a plane crash that killed four South Dakota men a year ago.

The single-engine Piper PA 32R-300 crashed April 27, 2014, when it struck a 330-foot-high wind turbine in fog 10 miles south of Highmore. The crash killed the pilot and three cattlemen returning from a sale in Texas.

The American News reports (http://bit.ly/1Dd9bgf ) that a National Transportation Safety Board report released this week says the pilot's decision to fly low in deteriorating weather and the non-operating light on the turbine were likely causes. No problem was found with the plane.

Killed were pilot Donald "D.J." Fischer, of Gettysburg; and cattlemen Brent Beitelspacher, of Bowdle; Logan Rau, of Java; and Nick Reimann, of Ree Heights.

Information from: Aberdeen American News, http://www.aberdeennews.com

//-------------------//

NTSB Identification: CEN14FA224

14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation

Accident occurred Sunday, April 27, 2014 in Highmore, SD

Probable Cause Approval Date: 04/27/2015

Aircraft: PIPER PA 32R-300, registration: N8700E

Injuries: 4 Fatal. 

NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

During a dark night cross-country flight, the instrument-rated pilot was approaching the intended airport for landing when the airplane collided with the blades of a wind turbine tower. The weather had started to deteriorate and precipitation echoes were observed on radar. 

Witnesses in the area described low clouds, windy conditions, and precipitation. In addition, weather briefing records and statements made to a witness indicate that the pilot was aware of the current and forecast weather conditions for the route of flight. Investigators were unable to determine why the airplane was operating at a low altitude; however, the pilot was likely attempting to remain clear of the clouds even though both the pilot and the airplane were capable of flying in instrument meteorological conditions. 

An examination of the airplane, systems, and engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Toxicology findings revealed a small amount of ethanol in the pilot’s blood, which was unlikely due to ingestion since no ethanol was found in liver or muscle tissue.
The investigation revealed that the wind turbine farm was not marked on either sectional chart covering the accident location; however, the pilot was familiar with the area and with the wind turbine farm. Investigators were not able to determine what the pilot was using for navigation just before the accident. 

The light on the wind turbine tower that was struck was not operational at the time of the accident, and the outage was not documented in a notice to airmen.

The wind turbine that was struck was the 5th tower in a string of towers oriented east to west, then the string continued south and southwest with an additional 13 towers. 

If the pilot observed the lights from the surrounding wind turbines, it is possible that he perceived a break in the light string between the wind turbines as an obstacle-free zone.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows: 

The pilot's decision to continue the flight into known deteriorating weather conditions at a low altitude and his subsequent failure to remain clear of an unlit wind turbine. 

Contributing to the accident was the inoperative obstruction light on the wind turbine, which prevented the pilot from visually identifying the wind turbine.

//----------------------------------//

Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the single-engine Piper PA-32 was reported missing on Sunday and was later found 10 miles south of the central South Dakota town. The plane was traveling from Hereford, Texas, to Gettysburg, according to the FAA.

An FAA team was sent to the crash site Monday. However, since there were fatalities, the investigation is under the jurisdiction of the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB did not return calls seeking comment by Monday evening.

A preliminary accident and incident report on the FAA’s website Monday night said the aircraft struck a wind tower and lists the plane’s condition as “destroyed.” The report also said the plane was the subject of an alert notice, which was sent out at 2:40 a.m. on Monday.

The four victims have been identified as Nick Reimann of Ree Heights, Logan Rau of Java, Brent Beitelspacher of Bowdle and Donald “DJ” Fischer of Gettysburg.

According to FAA records the plane was registered to Fischer.

A graduate of South Dakota State University, Fischer played football for the school in the mid-2000s under current head coach John Stiegelmeier.

“DJ was a picture of what you want out of a student athlete,” Stiegelmeier said. “He was one of those guys who when you asked him to do something there was no hesitation.”

Fischer had an unbelievable work ethic, he said, and stayed connected to the football program even after graduating.

The 30-year-old, who, according to the South Dakota Aviation Association, was a pilot for Air Kraft Spraying Inc., died in the vehicle he made a living with, Stiegelmeier said.

Fischer was one of seven siblings. According to his brother, Michael, he had three nieces and two nephews and was a loving family man. Fischer married his wife, Megan, six weeks ago.

As a volunteer firefighter and EMT, Fischer was always there to help other people, Michael said.

“He was a community man,” Michael said.

The wreckage was found at the South Dakota Wind Energy Center, a group of wind turbines, all approximately 300-foot-tall, placed on several parcels of private property. The crash site was in a pasture west of South Dakota State Highway 47 and north of 207th Street.

Steve Stengel, a spokesman for Florida-based NextEra Engery Inc, whose subsidiary operates the turbines, said the company was notified early Monday morning about the missing plane. One of the wind turbine technicians on the site is a volunteer fireman, and he was alerted to the situation at 3 a.m., Stengel said.

Because of the weather – heavy fog and moderate rain for most of the day – no one from NextEra had been out to inspect the turbines, Stengel said. He could not confirm what damage had been done to the turbines.

“We are following the lead of the authorities who are leading the investigation,” he said.

The Hyde County Sheriff’s Office had all access to the area blocked off Monday and referred all questions to the Hyde County State’s Attorney. The State’s Attorney’s office referred questions to the FAA.

The identities of Fischer and the other victims were released by the families and the funeral homes making the burial arrangements.

Rau’s sister, TiAnn Poloncic, said her 25-year-old brother could sell a ketchup Popsicle to someone wearing white gloves.

“He had the gift of gab and could make anyone laugh,” she added.

Rau loved his family, hunting, ice fishing, the Kansas City Chiefs and treated his three dogs like children, Poloncic said.

Rau married his wife, Natalie, a school teacher in Bowdle, on July 27, 2013. He attended Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown and was halfway done with a paramedic program before making the choice to head back to the family farm and run the operation with his father Todd, Poloncic said.

“He was living the American dream,” she said. “He was a tough farmer but he had a soft heart. He loved what he did.”

Beitelspacher, who turned 38 on Monday, was remembered by friends and loved ones for his passion.

“He was very energetic,” said his mother Carla. “He was ready to capture the world.”

He was a very loving husband and father and a hard worker who almost always had a smile on his face, she said.

Carla Beitelspacher said her son loved hunting, fishing and being outdoors. Beitelspacher had a sale barn in Gettysburg for 10 years before he began working for Northern Plains, a diversified farmer-owned county operation of Cenex Harvest States.

Cory Jueneman was one of the people that traveled around the country, hunted and fished with Beitelspacher.

“We fished a lot of tournaments over the years,” he said, “and hunted everything we could.”

The men had become so close they spoke every day while they went to work. “I talked to him every day at 6:50 in the morning,” Jueneman said, adding that counted the weekends also. He and Beitelspacher even vacationed together, taking their wives with them. This year, the group went to Costa Rica, Jueneman said.

“We were pretty big buddies,” he said.

Reimann, 33, operated Reimann Ranch along with his wife Kyrstin according to the company’s website.

The four men traveled to Hereford to attend an annual cattle sale hosted by Mike Mimms, a veterinarian, on Saturday.

“Nick Reimann had some of the best cows in the country,” said Mimms. “He was an influential breeder in the industry.”

Mimms considered Reimann a long-time friend, who was well respected among cattlemen.

Although he had been purchasing cattle from Beitelspacher for more than a decade, Mimms hadn’t met his supplier until last weekend. Mimms met Rau the same day.

Fog and low clouds combined for reduced visibility in the Highmore area on Sunday night, and winds were out of the east at about 15 to 25 mph, said Renee Wise, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Aberdeen. There were also scattered showers across region Sunday night, and some might have been heavy at times, she said.

The cattlemen, along with Fischer, tried to wait for extreme winds to subside before making the flight back to South Dakota, Mimms said. They even considered heading back with another cattleman who was driving back to South Dakota early Sunday morning, he said, but the men didn’t want to trouble him.

“The people that have lost family members need to know that people in Texas realize that the parents and the families of those guys are well respected here,” Mimms said. “The guys came down here to support us and pay respects to customers they had.That’s a thing that weighs on my mind – if it hadn’t been for this sale, they wouldn’t have been here.”

TiAnn Rau Poloncic posted at 8:29 am on Wed, Apr 30, 2014.

The fighting about wind turbines ends NOW. I lost my brother, my daughter lost her hero, my father lost his son and best friend, my mother lost her baby boy and my sister-in-law lost her soul-mate; and that is only one of four families affected. I will not allow you to trivialize his death and make it into any thing more than it is: A tragedy for this entire state and the cattle industry as a whole. So please end this now.'Logan's Sister'

irene gilbert posted at 1:08 am on Wed, Apr 30, 2014.

I just got back to this. Since it is late, and I need to gather some of the data to respond to some of your comments, I will deal with this tomorrow for the last time as you are right, it is a waste of my time. I know you will not be convinced with facts. One fact that we should start with is that I am not paid for my work. I do it as a volunteer as I care about the kind of planet and bills we are leaving to my child and grandchildren as a result of the misplaced emphasis and money being given to wind developers in order for them to destroy our natural resources.

Anonymous Commenter posted at 7:12 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

Irene, once again you have missed the point and the mark in your response. Usually I would not spend so much time responding but sine you have taken the time from your 15 hour weeks as a legal analyst and activist blogger up in Portland Oregon to make these inflammatory claims in our local paper I will offer one last thought. As I had said before and you ignored, the time for hyperbole is over. Please state some facts and not your paid opinions. Addressing your comments in your last post;1. Please list the forms of energy generation that have a lower mortality rate than wind. You claim wind power kills people. One link please that states this is this is true.2. Please post a reference that shows the number of bird deaths from wind is greater than the number of bird deaths from nuclear, coal, nat gas, take your pick, dealers choice. One link please. Make sure to ask the people cleaning oil off birds in the gulf. Google the causes of bird deaths as I just did. 33,000 from wind turbines per year. Sounds like a lot but compare that to 976,000,000 from flying into windows. Another 500 million from feral cats. Ten minutes on Google can disprove every single thing you are saying and assuming people wont look up for themselves.3. What is the 'gravy train' you are referring to? Please post a link that shows wind receives greater subsidies than any other form of power generation. One link please. Any link. Remember the PTC is a sliver of what the oil companies receive.4. You call this my religion (probably a negative connotation for you). Clearly it is not. I would say my 'religion' is slanted more towards factual data and constructive debate not baseless accusations and wild hysteria. 5. Your last sentence its the kicker. Millions of dollars (I guess you would call them gravy train dollars) are spent by wind developers for environmental assessments which independent bodies and local and federal governments need to accept before the farm can be built. Despite all this they are all baloney. And you know because you are a paid legal analyst for an anti wind group up in Oregon and an activist blogger. The engineers and scientists must be wrong. But I thank you for dropping by to comment in our local paper. Perhaps you can garner up a few more signatures for your Oregon petition and put a few more bucks in your pocket. Of course on the backs of these grieving families.......-Jared

irene gilbert posted at 5:09 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

Killing machines refers to birds, bats, people, and other animals and people driven out of their homes as a result of these monsters. I pride myself in providing a service to the citizens. These developments provide more harm than good, and we have been fighting for developers to recognize and take responsibility for the hazards and damage they inflict on the areas where they have been developed. There are predictable consequences to these developments and the people building them need to be held accountable for those predictable impacts. It is time to stop the gravy train and provide consequences for what wind developments do just as any other developer is held accountable if they kill golden eagles, other endangered animals or people. I do not expect to change your views as it appears to be a "religion" to you. I too started out supporting "green" energy until I started researching, working with the siting process and studying the research that is being done absent the predictable decisions of the wind development purchased studies that always seem to show "no significant impacts". Baloney!!!

Anonymous Commenter posted at 4:54 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

As I said, this is not the place to promote your political agenda and yet you persist. Class act.Since you wish to do it anyway, please be specific as you have declared you are a legal analyst that is in no way connected to this particular accident. At all.I think of the thousands of hours spent is site studies, ecological and wildlife assessments and the process of placing a windfarm in a particular region. I am sure that pales in comparison to the 15 hours a week you spend blogging about it. Sounds like you have it figured all out. So I will pull a quote from your post"The placement of the machines and failure to take responsibility for the fact that there are going to be inexperienced pilots"You want the wind companies to take responsibility for untrained pilots now? Why do you call them killing machines? Please list the number of wind turbine caused deaths in the last 10 years. Please. Compare it to Nuclear, Coal, Nat gas, take your pick.Or better yet, please show a little class and let it be. If that is within your capacity.-Jared

irene gilbert posted at 4:31 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

The point is that the developers have absolutely no concern for how their actions in building towers that are often over 450 feet in the air impact airplanes. They are fighting tooth and nail to not have to provide safe setbacks from local airports, not to have to recognize training corridors for military pilot training, not to have to recognize or avoid their impacts to radar necessary for our national defense, and it goes on and on. Siting decisions are based more on politics than public and wildlife safety and politics dictate that taxpayers have to pay for these killing machines. I have been the Legal Research Analyst for the Friends of the Grande Ronde Valley for over 3 years. I spend a minimum of 15 hrs. a week doing research, attending siting committee meetings, researching contested case issues, providing public training on wind development impacts, etc. The placement of the machines and failure to take responsibility for the fact that there are going to be inexperienced pilots, pilots flying without radar, and others who would not be at risk were it not for these developments. I hope the relatives of the people killed sue the wind developers. Unfortunately, they set up all these wind developments as limited liability companies, so you can't really get to the big pockets.

Anonymous Commenter posted at 4:10 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

Posts: 193

This is extremely tragic and the guys sounded awesome. It's disgusting people will use this to push whatever agenda they want. What's next? Blaming the beef industry?

Anonymous Commenter posted at 3:52 pm on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

I am sorry Irene but you are asking for common sense yet are not displaying it in your post. These machines did not kill them. They were just sitting there, doing their job creating energy so you can post your posts on the internet. The problem is that a private plane was traveling at about 300 feet off the ground. No flight plan filed with the FAA would allow a private plane to fly at 300 feet altitude outside of take offs or landings. You do realize how low that is.It is a very unfortunate accident and condolences to the families. Please do not use this as an excuse to promote an agenda one way or the other. I could poke a hundred holes in your comment but as I said, this is not the place. Please have respect for the families.-Jared

irene gilbert posted at 11:52 am on Tue, Apr 29, 2014.

Four fine young men are dead, and taxpayers were forced to help pay for the wind development that killed them. When will the people of tis country be released from the mandates that force them to support these killing monsters? These companies have no concern for the safety of our citizens, they are only after the almighty $. In Oregon, the developers have ignored the Department of Navy objections to the impacts Shepherd Flatts Wind Development would have on the pilot training corridor. Saddle Butte Wind Development is now in the middle of a contested case because they refuse to accommodate the Department of Navy requests that they not build in the same flight training corridor. They have also refused to address the Department of Defense objection that the development will impact National Defense since it will interfere with the radar station which provides protection for the west coast from Canada to Northern California. All this is occurring at a time when these money hungry companies are pushing for an extension of the production tax credit which would require more taxpayer support for additional developments and the president is pushing to allow wind developments in Natonal Forests. When does common sense kick in?