Antenna Strike Fails To Down King Air

When investigators inspected a King Air C90 after it collided with a weather station antenna, they found an obstruction light was embedded in the right wing, two propeller blades on the right engine were bent and the right horizontal stabilizer had a five- to six-inch gash. On December 18, at approximately 7 p.m., N55EP struck the antenna after departing from Runway 35 at Salt Lake City International Airport. Weather was IMC at the time. Subsequently, “the pilot lost all instrumentation,” climbed to VMC and was given vectors to Provo, Utah. The pilot and his passenger were not injured.