If you have a health and safety plan for your farm that identifies, manages and communicates risks like wire strike, then injuries and fatalities can be prevented.

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Wire Strike (PDF 168 KB)

Key points

Farmers

• Remove aerial wires where possible

• Mark all wires that can't be removed on a hazard map for the pilot.

Pilots

• Wires are thin and often nearly impossible to see until it’s too late.

• Your workload, vision limitations, and a small lapse in concentration can lead to a fatal mistake.

• Ask farmers if there are any wires or poles above fence level or across gullies.

Overhead wires, aerials or cables are a significant threat to any aircraft flying at low level (under 500 ft). Helicopters are especially susceptible because of the work they do.

Types of wire hazards

• Suspended overhead electric fence feeder wires that span across open spaces and valleys-from poles on the tops of ridge lines, or across the bottom of valleys.

• Telephone lines, power lines or television/ radio aerials and wires.

• High tension power lines and wires.

How to prevent wire strike

• Eliminate the overhead electric fence feeder wires risk by lowering them to fence level.

• Eliminate unused telephone lines, power lines or television/radio aerials and wires.

• Ensure you have a meeting with the pilot, either in person or by phone, prior to any work on the farm.

• Work with the pilot to identify hazards and risks.

• Note wires and other hazards on property maps.

• Identify the location of wires and other hazards by taking a reconnaissance flight with the pilot.