Crop duster nearly hits semi on US 30 in Indiana

WSBT 22 has received video of what was almost a major accident between a crop-duster and a semi on U.S. 30. It happened near Hanna, in La Porte County, and was caught on cellphone video.

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[JBWRight]

15000 horsepower? Might want to pull a zero.

[mikew]

15, 000hp because VTEC just kicked in yo

[spanieaj]

15, 000 HP? WOW! What is the climb rate of that sucker?

[chrislane]

the plane has 1500 not 15000 horsepower

[eligebrown]

Ive been driving truck for 20 years and have always loved watching these guys do their jobs flying across the fields. I have never seen one get this close to trafgic befor.

[rogerkonrade]

She’s off on the horsepower by about 14, 000 horsepower !

[OneTequilaTwoTequila]

The FAA low-level exemptions for crop dusting don't allow endangering people on the ground while flying low level.

[giftedterror]

Lol could you imagine 15 000 hp in an airplane

[stevedawson]

15 thousand horse power???? I DONT THINK SO?? Tell the reporter to do a report on a different topic!!!!

[keithdorothy]

He new what he was doing. That’s not close for a pilot that spends his live flying 2 feet off the ground

[rodb]

It’s not 15, 000 hp obviously, another thought is maybe he was heavy with mostly a full hopper and couldn’t quite pull up in time…but I’m not a pilot..

[guitarhillbilly]

There are a few thousand yellow Ag planes operating in the U.S. Most of them are either Air Tractor or Thrush and most of them are now Turbine powered. Things are happening very fast at the level and speeds they fly at. I bet every person on this thread who drives has at one time or another mis- judged their distance with another vehicle and almost / or did have a collision. People need to look in the mirror first before being critical of this pilot.
The Ag operator in the interview threw one of his fellow pilots under the bus and what you sow is what you reap. I wonder if the pilot who who flew close to the semi is in any way his direct competition? Ag pilots are a small fraternity and normally would not do this to each other.

[THEMIGHTYMOUSE]

That's an amazingly skilled pilot, that vid should be on his resume! Cropdusting and safety are a bit hard to combine in a sentence, glad it worked out.

[frankirvine]

Yes it’s dangerous for sure, my brother was in the business for many years in NZ and had fellow pilots have accidents that were fatal
My brother had a heart attack on takeoff and the machine caught fire and you survive that
At least his passion was flying✅✔️

[TheWilliamHoganExperience]

Even though AG Pilots are some of the best in the world, they are human beings. They get it wrong sometimes. AG flying is the most dangerous and demanding type of civilian aviation with the possible exception of aerobatic flying, which is it's close cousin. Generally areobatic pilots don't spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week doing low altitude loops and spins for a living.

I'm guessing this was an emergency manuever based on his flight path, powerlines and tower in the video. He was looking where he was going, not at the truck. Pilot probably mis-judged his location when intitaing his run or had a control, altitude or alignment issue mid flight, and had to cross the highway at low altitude to avoid CFIT into a tower or the powerlines in front of him. Those "15, 000 HP" (lol) turbo-prop air-tractors are moving FAST (135 mph+) and LOW. Their runs generally only last a few seconds, they must be pin-point accurate. Time is litterally money in commercial aviation, so AG pilots are under enormous time pressure to git- 'er done quickly.

Things happen VERY FAST and there is vanishingly small margin for error.

No way he was deliberately playing chicken with Semi unless he was suicidal. Pilots that reckless rarely advance past Cessna 150s before washing out of flying - usually by augering in.

[drlarcey]

I’m glad that you’re attitude every cropduster I’ve ever seen is a total cowboy…


Keep it safe

[losttapes]

Saw the same plane flying extremely low and fast over residential neighborhoods in La Porte.

[JoshPhoenix]

It looks like he's about to go under those power lines too. I don't think he would be wanting to stay down that low if he were planning to fly over them. Wouldn't you have started to pull up by that time, especially if you were going to have to pull up immediately anyway to get over the lines?
Is it illegal to fly under power lines? I would imagine it would be highly illegal..

[Maroon_Brick]

At 15000 hp at full speed that thing would make 32, 000 ish pounds of thrust giving it close to 300, 000 feet per minute climb rate🤣🤣🤣

[thomasmaloney]

Just think what a P40 could do with 15000 HP!