Yah crap like that is more common than you think.
When I was in the military back in the 85-91 timeframe, I was working a drop zone one day and a Brigadier General (ex-fighter pilot) who didn't normally fly was making a drop. Normal drop height is 800 ft FYI, and our unit flies C-130H's. He literally came in so low over our DZ command vehicles (a standard Chevy Pickup and a Blazer) that if I had been standing in the bed of the pickup I could almost have touched the bottom of the aircraft if I had jumped up a little. No joke.
Then several years later, our sister unit in Martinsburg WV the 167th Tactical Airlift Wing, lost a C-130 during a training mission. They were screwing around and flying UNDER high voltage transmission lines (electric power of course) between a set of towers. In a C-130, this would be very much like flying thru the hanger in AH for real. Turned out during the investigation that this was common with this unit, and this crew just screwed up. They clipped one outter wing off as they went under, made it out, but the plane rolled over on its back and augered.
Some pilots have more balls than brains.
