On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:28:38 -0500, John Szalay wrote:


a very quick NTSB database shows 6545 incidents involving "wires" from
1969 to date.. If you really interested you can inspect all of those..
;-)

quick look at some, many involve crop spray operations

Thanks for taking the time and effort to do that. I had no idea
where such data could be located.

It would seem that only specialized helicopter applications
are prone to this kind of threat. Crop dusting is obviously
one, and power line inspection, which is presumably the job
of the chopper in this photo, would be another. Military
helicopters would need the protection of wire cutters as well.

But most helicopters take off from airports and quickly reach
altitudes that place them far above low-lying power lines and
cables.