Aircraft Appears To Have Struck A Wind Turbine In Foggy Weather

An airplane with four people on board went down at a South Dakota wind farm while returning home from at Texas cattle sale.

The FAA indicated that the airplane was a Piper PA-32. It had departer Hereford, TX and was en route to Gettysburg, SD when it went down. The plane was registered to Gettysburg resident Donald J. "D.J." Fisch, according to FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory.

The Associated Press reports that the wreckage was discovered Monday at the South Dakota Wind Energy Center ... a wind farm consisting of 27 turbines standing 213 feet tall not including the length of the blades. A spokesman for NextEra Energy, the Florida company that operates the wind farm, said that there was damage to one of the turbines, but spokesman Steve Stengel did not say what part of the turbine had apparently been hit.

The weather in the area of the wind farm Sunday night when the accident occurred was reported to be foggy with low clouds and reduced visibility. Winds were out of the east gusting to 25 mph according to the National Weather Service. Scattered occasionally-heavy rain showers were also moving through the area at the time.

(Wind turbines pictured in file photo. Not accident scene)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov