Reminds me of the Navy Seahawk that caught the high transmission lines from the power plant I was working for one night. They drug the wires about a mile before landing to figure out what was wrong. Nobody hurt, the plant sent the Navy a bill for 5 million dollars of lost revenue, about a couple weeks worth of power they sold to Southern Edison.

Tower probably flexed a fair bit, that probably made all the difference.

I don’t know I have some good pictures up close that show no noticeable buckling of the tower cross bracing etc. and mostly all the wires are still in place. I appears from the photos that it stood pretty firm. I have never invested the time to learn how to post pics from iphone on this site so no photos. Yes it probably gave a little but I still stand by 100 to 0 in around 5 feet.

From an engineering perspective, I'm sure it moved several feet. Steel is pretty elastic, so it went right back to where it started.

YouTube with map and ATC Audio
 

You can only hear ATC on the audio, but the pilot had to be corrected several times, almost like he was confused/disoriented. ATC told him to switch to advisory freq then a min later tried to warn him about low altitude alert.
The video has a map with the Mooney's position.

https://youtu.be/tVGk-2H5V9E

I've spent a big chunk of my flying career looking up at powerlines, or flying under them. Definitely no laughing matter; powerlines figure in my nightmares. Every once in a while there's an image on the news of a Cessna hanging in high tension lines somewhere, but more often, when someone contacts powerlines, the airplane doesn't fare well.

These two got very lucky.

I haven't hit a line to date, but I've been behind or alongside those who did; I've watched it happen, picked up the pieces, and repaired airplanes that hit powerlines, and have flown alongside them looking for damage as we flew back to the airport, with the other guy trailing a lot of wire, missing wingtips, leading edges, canopies, and so on.

One of the funniest stories I ever heard told was an inspector in a FSDO, a former spray pilot, who had a blow-by-blow account of his super cub folding up around him after he caught a wire, eventually ending up strapped to a seat in a field, with little else around him. Another involved a friend who lost his teeth doing a face plant into the panel when spraying a field. I was behind a guy who stayed airborne after cutting four lines, about 35 years ago. There was a lot of damage, but he kept spraying until his retirement. His account wasn't funny, but it made a great story, and I still use his example as an object lesson, sometimes.

Guy wires on towers are spookier than powerlines. Those will end your day.

NTSB Prelim is out
 

https://apnews.com/article/business-...c5d9a3facb6fee

Plane was flying below minimum altitudes. (big surprise)

Pilot quotes: "I got down a little lower than I should have (insert quote involving Sherlock Holmes).....I thought I was closer to the airport than I was....We could see the ground, but we couldn't see in front" (yea, that's kinda how it usually happens).

NTSB Preliminary report.

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/a...ort/106368/pdf

Night hard IFR down to minimums in an old piston airplane….(shudders).
That’s an easy approach too.
Considering his struggles with even just a heading and a direct-to he had no business being there.
The fact he had a passenger that likely had full faith in his abilities made him press on.
Time to hand in his certificate.

(Laughs in check hauler)