RAYMOND -- The Clara City pilot who clipped a power line this summer will receive counseling, federal regulators have decided.
Clara City pilot Nathan Graves was crop dusting July 26 southeast of Raymond when his plane clipped a set of power lines along County Road 3.
Graves was able to maintain control of the crop duster until he landed safely on a runway north of Clara City.
Local authorities were called to the scene and some people experienced a power outage for 15 to 20 minutes, but no one was injured in the crash.
Elizabeth Cory, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Chicago, said Tuesday the FAA has completed its investigation and Graves will receive counseling about the incident. Counseling will consist of information on the incident itself as well as a reminder of rules and regulations.
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"Basically what happened and how it happened," Cory said.
The low altitude at which Graves was flying when he clipped the lines is allowed during crop dusting, but actually hitting the wires was a cause for concern for Cory.
Although Graves' license is not in jeopardy because of the crash, this isn't his first run-in with the FAA.
In March of 2003, Graves took a friend flying in his crop dusting plane south of Raymond and later crashed the plane into a power line, seriously injuring his friend.
Graves was found to be flying erratically by the United States Department of Transportation and the FAA. Graves was charged criminally after the crash and was sentenced in 2004 on one gross misdemeanor count of criminal vehicular injury. He received a stayed sentence of 180 days as long as he complied with probation and paid a fine.
In the 2003 crash, Graves had originally faced a felony charge of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm along with the charge of criminal vehicular injury. Graves was not charged criminally after the incident in July.
