Crop Duster Crashes into Lettuce Field

A helicopter spraying crops with water crashed into a lettuce field in rural Watsonville Wednesday morning, but no one was hurt, Cal Fire reported.

The crop dusters went down near Murphy Crossing and Riverside roads about 10:50 a.m., according to Cal Fire Capt. Loree Borelli. She said the pilot—the sole occupant of the aircraft—got out immediately and was unhurt.

"It was really good to see him walk away from it," Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jake Hess said.

The pilot, a Watsonville-area man, was contracted to spray the Pajaro Valley fields Wednesday morning. The blades of his chopper clipped a power line that ran across the south edge of the field, according to Hess.

"He was able to make a real hard landing and he miraculously walked away," Hess said.

The helicopter didn't catch on fire. The sliced power lines caused three residences to lose power, according to a PG&E spokeswoman.

The young pilot was visibly shaken after the crash. Dressed in jeans and a collared shirt with muddy boots, he poked around the crumpled remains of the helicopter with another man after Cal Fire, the California Highway Patrol and PG&E left the field. He said the Federal Aviation Administration had instructed him to not answer questions about the crash while they investigated.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will probe the crash, but the state Division of Occupational Health and Safety declined to investigate it as a workplace accident, because the pilot wasn't hospitalized for 24 hours or longer, Hess said.

The helicopter is a 1967 Bell Rotorcraft registered to Gomes Farm Air Service Inc. of Spreckles, in Monterey County. The company could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to Manta.com, Gomes Farm Air Services Inc. is a crops planting and protecting company established in 1980. It has also partnered with Watsonville's Specialized Helicopters to help train novice pilots.

The crop duster laid on its side about 50 yards from the Riverside Road edge of the field, with one blade sticking straight up. The debris was roped off with yellow crime-scene tape.

Hess said the wrecked helicopter would stay in the field for at least a few days while Gomes Farm Air Services Inc. figures out how to remove it. Typically, a Cal Fire crew would help a tow company remove it, but fire officials were concerned about the farmer.

"We don't want to destroy any more of their crop," Hess said. "Today we would end up destroying hundreds and hundreds, well, probably more like thousands, of plants."

The field, owned by Willoughby Farms, is set to be harvested Tuesday, Hess said.

Willoughby Farms is a medium-sized vegetable grower that's been in the Pajaro Valley for about 100 years. The Watsonville-based farm operates approximately 3,000 acres for Dole Fresh Vegetables and Taylor Farms in Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara counties.

Wednesday's helicopter crash comes less than two weeks after when their single-engine, fixed-wing plane crashed into an OB-GYN clinic on the campus. The cause of the fatal crash remains under investigation.