I wasn't really paying attention to this story,  but it's turning into a crazy one.   A lady pilot named Brittney Infanger lost her life while moving freight for UPS when her 208 struck a steel tower during a low visibility GPS final to runway 20 at KBYI.  

Dan Gryder went to the scene and discovered that a local potato plant had constructed illegal steel tower obstructions which penetrated the advisory glideslope. 

He did some research and discovered that 7 obstructions penetrate the departure path of RWY 02 by 57 feet to 64 feet.   8 obstructions penetrate the final approach on RWY 20 by approximately 60 feet.

He examined the tower wreckage and discovered that the wiring of the warning strobe beacon on the tower Brittney impacted was never connected and energized.   

Many people assumed that she was pushing it,  but it turns out that she was following her GPS. 

Dan jumped on the phone and informed an FAA rep of the obstructions,  and informed the rep that he better move quickly before someone else is killed.    Pretty sad story.

Ultimately,  Dan uncovered some documents which indicate that prior to the construction of the towers the FAA told the plant they had to be less than 50 feet tall.   The EPA told the plant the towers had to be 120 feet tall.   

Someone at the plant decided to lie to the EPA and FAA instead.  They told the EPA the towers were taller than they are,  and told the FAA they were shorter than they are.

 

Edited May 21, 20224 yr by Waldo Pepper

Her father Jim, spoke to the local news.

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 "There's a 60-foot chimney sticking out of the food processing plant - no lights on it, dead center - straight across the runway. So whenever you come in, you have to fly over the top of this and drop down," Jim told local news station East Idaho News. "The airport needs to be closed, period," the distraught father insisted. "I'm a pilot myself and...many pilots have told me how unsafe the Burley Airport is and how they've begged the county to relocate it. They've allowed this potato plant to continue to expand and this chimney comes on and has a huge amount of steam. If the wind is blowing...you fly right into this wall of steam."

From the YT comments,

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Dan, I have flown this approach a handful of times over the last 15 years. Last time I flew it was 5 months ago in a PC12 47E with the Honeywell Apex suite. I broke out 200 above mins and actually had to side step the approach. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the stack that had not been there before. I called my company and informed them I would never fly that approach to mins under any circumstances. KBYI is already a big challenge without having to fly that gauntlet. It was bad before that stack was constructed, but now it’s just suicidal. I very much regret not taking it to the FAA. I should have. That approach is incredibly dangerous and wouldn’t make terps even if they took that stack down. It’s a shocking thing to see on short final! My condolences to her family. In my opinion bureaucracy killed her. I’d be suing city hall, the FAA and the potato factory if I was them.