Real Pilot Story: Crossed Wires

Commercial pilot and CFI Greg Soter reflects on an emergency landing near Birdseye, Utah, in June of 2013, after discovering an electrical fire in the back of the Cessna 172 he was flying. In this Real Pilot Story, Greg discusses his decision to land on a road, a factor that would have a significant impact on the flight’s outcome.

We examine critical lessons learned and the difficult decisions pilots make in an emergency when faced with limited landing options.

ASI’s Real Pilot Stories allow pilots to share their encounter with a dilemma so others can benefit—while comfortable on the ground—from lessons learned the hard way in flight.

Learn more:
Review the Emergency Procedures Safety Spotlight
Take the Electrical Fires quiz

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[jimcurns]

The best recount of an accident I have ever listened to.

[HookedOnUtah]

Greg is an amazing person, pilot and CFII. He's been a long time friend of mine and has helped me over my 25 Plus years of flying.. So sad that Gerald didn't make it.

[dezobwd]

So grateful to the pilots who share these difficult stories, they do save lives.

[pilotmark]

Thanks for putting this on . I’m sorry to hear that Gerald didn’t make it . Great takeaways from this story about reconsidering other places beside the road to land, shoulder harnesses and having a fire extinguisher.

[peterellison]

This AOPA podcast stuck with me when I listened to it a few years back. Makes me realize how much safer it is to land on even a bad field than to hit power lines going for a road. Seatbelts and fire extinguishers are paramount to safety in an emergency

[mjmcmull]

watching this reminded me to replace my existing extinguisher on my 182 with new - just ordered it; thanks;

[gonetoearth]

Takes a lot of courage to talk about this. Thank you sir. 🙏🏽

[roadkillphil]

My condolences. A tip that hopefully is never needed: As mentioned here, wires are hard to see. Spray pilots know to look for signs of wires in addition to the wires: towers, poles, structures, wells, etc.

[MrShaneSunshine]

I love how he deals with the loss of his collegue by talking about what needs to happen moving forward instead of acting fearful to talk about it. A tough and sad lesson for us all to pay attention to. The off road landing is a good conversation.

[VideoNOLA]

tl;dr A pilot's employer ill-equipped two men on a test flight, nearly killing both in the process. Radar developers should be smart enough to understand risks like electrical fires and train/provision accordingly.

[andrewmaclean]

These videos are so important. I'm a student pilot (30hrs) and have been watching them daily trying to learn as much as possible

[jimmydulin]

Thanks for the report. Having experienced a fair amount of trauma, I can corroborate the memory loss. Doc says you will remember in a few days. In a few days he says you will never remember. All your points were good. I had thirteen forced landings. Most were with military three inch wide and four point harness. Ag airplanes had military belts long ago. I was usually in farm country where fields were more likely than roads, but have used both. After action reports help us and others in the future. My only burnt paint but no fire experience was from a crack in the stack on a pipeline 172, but fire extinguisher is appropriate and was provided by the company. Thanks again.

[JamesGood]

A very well produced video, with a great message, thank you for sharing, Greg and AOPA.

[kodywillnauer]

A man more of us should listen too. Sincere and always learning.

[keithpedersen]

Love the suggestion to engage and "role play" your training! It is important to simulate the emotions you will feel so that you learn to control them.

[PeterGottlieb-nq]

I question why the equipment in back wasn't properly fused. Fusing the power wiring would have prevented the fire. A fire extinguisher may not have helped much in this case as the ignition source remained although it might have cut down on toxic fumes by inhibiting burning of plastic cases. PVC wire used here, like many materials when they burn, emits very toxic fumes (and why was hardware store wire used in even a test setup in aircraft?). So getting down was the right thing to do.

[oaktadopbok]

When I was taught to fly back in the early 70s, I was told never ever land on na road. 1. Other people in cars 2. Invisible power lines

[jordanhubbard]

Really good story and good message. Thanks for sharing what was a painful incident that clearly still haunts the pilot to this day but imparts some useful lessons. I was always taught not to land on roads for exactly this reason - wires, signs, dividers, vehicles that maybe you couldn't see when you were checking the stretch out before landing on it, all good reasons to avoid a road unless the alternative is literally a mountain or you're somewhere like Alaska where the road network has also been deliberately designed as a set of alternative runways (I guess they run the wires underground there or something!).

I'm not sure that a standard fire extinguisher would have put out the fire for good given that an external battery was involved that couldn't be shut off with the master (you can see it in the post-crash investigation photos), but at the very least it might have bought some time to consider other landing sites!

[ArturoGuerraPerez]

Thanks Greg for sharing your story. We all learn from unfortunate events like these. Condolences to the family.

[fivestringslinger]

Thanks for sharing this story. Working on my commercial now and I think the next time I go flying with my instructor, we're definitely going to spend some time running through emergency drills.