Resources · Flight Safety
Wire Hazard Map
Power lines crossing waterways are among the deadliest hazards in float flying — most are unmarked, unlit, and absent from every aeronautical chart. We compile wire crossings over water from 314+ utility and government datasets, cross-check them against official obstacle files, verify them with lidar where coverage exists, and publish the result free: this map, plus a ForeFlight pack and KML for each region below.
⚠ ADVISORY ONLY — NOT FOR NAVIGATION. This dataset is known to be incomplete, especially
for low distribution lines. The absence of a marker does not mean the absence of wires. Always inspect a
landing area from altitude and verify every hazard independently.
315,062wire-over-water crossings across 219 detailed regions
99.7%of US-side crossings are NOT in the FAA obstacle file
43,111over-water spans — wire suspended across open water
944official FAA wire obstacles over water in the coverage area
129,935crossings confirmed by 2+ independent sources
611possible crossings independently confirmed by lidar
Get the packs
Tap the map to pick as many regions as you want — states, provinces, or the deep-coverage rings — then get them as one combined ForeFlight pack, a single install. We email you a personal one-click link. Free, forever.
Tap your state or province. Deep-coverage regions and continent-wide add-ons are below — picking one highlights the area it covers.
Or browse by area:
West & Pacific Northwest · 11 packs · 115,799 crossings
| Inland Northwest Puget Sound · Mid-Columbia (Kennewick corridor) · Pend Oreille · Western Montana, now over NorthWestern Energy's whole transmission system — the Flathead, the Swan–Seeley chain, Whitefish, Noxon & Cabinet Gorge, the Clark Fork and the Bitterroot. On the Puget Sound side Snohomish County PUD's medium-voltage corridor ribbons corroborate wires other sources already map, but they are ±50 ft buffer axes with underground mixed in, so they never place a pin of their own |
15,868 | ✈ Get |
| SW Washington & Olympic Coast The Washington gap-fill beyond the Inland-NW corridor pack (which already covers Puget Sound, the North Cascades west-slope reservoirs — Baker, Ross, Diablo — & Lake Cushman) and the Oregon pack: the Lewis River hydro chain (Merwin, Yale, Swift) & the Cowlitz (Riffe, Mayfield) · Silver & Spirit lakes · the Tieton/Naches (Rimrock, Clear, Bumping) · Klickitat/White Salmon/Wind & the lower Columbia + WA gorge · the Olympic Peninsula outer coast — Quinault, Ozette, Wynoochee, Grays Harbor & Willapa Bay. HIFLD + BPA (authoritative WA/OR network) + PacifiCorp / Pacific Power's own overhead network on the Klickitat–White Salmon–Wind side of the gorge + OSM + Oregon GEOHub lidar + NOAA/USACE ENC charted clearances + FAA DOF, plus both Olympic/SW PUDs' own survey: Clallam County PUD primary distribution (Neah Bay, Sekiu, Forks, Lake Crescent, the Sol Duc and Hoh) and Lewis County PUD's trimmed-overstory spans (Riffe, Mayfield, Merwin, Swift, White Pass). Both are partial by construction — Clallam is the 2022 capacity study's modelled primary backbone, Lewis is a vegetation sample — so they add true positives, never coverage. |
4,881 | ✈ Get |
| Oregon Klamath basin (Upper Klamath, Agency) · Crater–Deschutes Cascade lakes (Wickiup, Crescent, Odell, Cultus, Bend) · Willamette valley reservoirs (Fern Ridge, Detroit, Foster/Green Peter, Dorena) · Columbia gorge (Hood R, The Dalles) · coast dune lakes (Siltcoos, Tahkenitch, Devils, Tenmile). Now on PacifiCorp's own overhead network — Pacific Power's named transmission lines and its span-level distribution, published by the utility itself rather than republished by one county. |
17,689 | ✈ Get |
| Central Idaho McCall & Cascade (Payette Lake SPB, Cascade Reservoir, Warm Lake, Deadwood) · Coeur d’Alene chain (CdA, Hayden, Spirit, Twin) · Payette–Boise reservoirs (Arrowrock, Lucky Peak, Lake Lowell) · Salmon River corridor & the Sawtooth lakes (Redfish, Alturas, Stanley). BLM Idaho Aerial Hazards (Idaho Power network) + BPA + HIFLD. |
7,963 | ✈ Get |
| Backcountry — Idaho & Montana FIRST NON-OVER-WATER pack — the wire you fly INTO at 50 ft AGL, not the one over the lake. Power lines within 1 nm of a backcountry airstrip plus a 3 nm approach/departure band along runway heading (labeled by strip ident), the BLM Idaho Aerial Hazards line layer (the authoritative low-level-flight wire dataset for the Idaho Power network), and wire crossings on the named canyon river corridors pilots actually fly — Main & Middle Fork Salmon, Selway, Lochsa, Snake/Hells Canyon, the Flathead forks & the Smith. Frank Church wilderness strips (Indian Creek, Big Creek, Cabin Creek, Moose Creek) correctly read clean — they're off-grid. Built entirely from data already ingested for the over-water product. |
6,220 | ✈ Get |
| Backcountry — US West The strip-proximity product for the rest of the West — WA OR CA NV UT CO WY AZ NM: power lines within 1 nm of a small airport or seaplane base plus a 3 nm approach/departure band along runway heading, 1,543 strips with mapped wires (per-strip fairness caps keep wilderness strips visible next to urban grids). Plus wire crossings on the named low-level river corridors — the Green, Colorado & San Juan through canyon country, the Rio Grande gorge, Salt & Verde (AZ), Owyhee/Deschutes/John Day/Rogue (OR), the Methow & Yakima (WA), Kern/Feather/Klamath/Trinity (CA), the Snake at Jackson Hole. The BLM aerial-hazards layer turns out to reach well beyond Idaho (469k lines into WY/UT/NV/E-WA/E-OR) and anchors the tier-A set. Idaho/Montana strips ship in the ID/MT pack, Alaska in the AK pack. |
39,937 | ✈ Get |
| Mountain West Colorado headwaters — Dillon Reservoir, Lake Granby, Grand & Shadow Mountain, Green Mountain, Williams Fork & Wolford · Flaming Gorge & Fontenelle on the Green (UT/WY) · Jackson Lake & Palisades Reservoir in the Tetons (WY/ID) · Bear Lake (UT/ID) · the Wasatch Front — Utah Lake, Deer Creek & Jordanelle (Provo). HIFLD + OSM + BPA + PacifiCorp / Rocky Mountain Power's own overhead transmission & distribution (the utility that actually serves the Wasatch Front, the Green and Bear Lake) + Colorado Xcel (NREL GDR) + Wyoming USGS + Utah SGID transmission/electrical + BLM Idaho + FAA DOF. Semi-arid hardened: dry playas & ephemeral washes excluded; the Great Salt Lake & the wilderness upper-Powell arms (already in the AZ pack south of 37.15°N) carry no transmission crossings. |
5,083 | ✈ Get |
| Nevada & Sierra-East Lake Tahoe's Nevada shore (Incline Village, Sand Harbor, Zephyr Cove, Stateline) & Washoe Lake · Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River corridor (Reno/Sparks), the Stampede/Boca/Prosser reservoirs, Lahontan Reservoir on the Carson & Rye Patch on the Humboldt · Walker Lake, Topaz Lake & Bridgeport Reservoir on the CA/NV line. HIFLD + OSM + CA-CEC (California/Sierra-crest bank) + FAA DOF. Desert-hardened: dry playas & ephemeral washes excluded. |
436 | ✈ Get |
| California The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta — dense wires over seaplane country: Sacramento, Stockton, Rio Vista, Isleton, Antioch, the sloughs & Suisun/Grizzly Bay · Shasta Lake, Trinity Lake (Clair Engle), Whiskeytown & Lewiston above Redding · Clear Lake, Lake Berryessa, Indian Valley & Lake Sonoma · the Sierra foothill reservoir chain — Oroville, Bullards Bar, Folsom, Camanche, Pardee, New Hogan, New Melones & Don Pedro · Lake Tahoe's California (west/south) shore + Donner Lake & Truckee (the Nevada east shore is in the Nevada pack). ca-cec (CA Energy Commission statewide transmission — PG&E, SMUD, WAPA, MID, TID) + HIFLD + OSM + PacifiCorp / Pacific Power's own overhead network above Redding, which is the utility that actually serves the Shasta–Trinity–Whiskeytown corner and had no utility-authored geometry here at all + NOAA ENC charted clearances over the tidal Delta & ship channels + FAA DOF. |
14,570 | ✈ Get |
| SoCal & Colorado River The two reaches of the Colorado River chain the Arizona pack does not cover — Needles/Topock, and Parker Valley → Blythe → Palo Verde → Cibola → Imperial Dam → Yuma (Gila confluence) · the Salton Sea, Coachella Valley & the Imperial Valley canal grid (All-American, East Highline, Coachella) · the Inland Empire reservoirs (Perris, Mathews, Elsinore, Diamond Valley, Skinner, Silverwood, Big Bear, Arrowhead) · San Diego County reservoirs (San Vicente, El Capitan, Hodges, Henshaw, Sutherland, Barrett, Morena, Otay, Cuyamaca). Southern California Edison's ICA circuit model (1.06M conductor segments + 1,030 transmission circuits — SCE's first open conductor publication) + CA-CEC transmission + HIFLD + OSM + Riverside Public Utilities + Anza Electric co-op + APS on the Arizona bank + FAA DOF. HONEST GAP: the SCE layers carry no overhead/underground flag, so SCE-only markers may be buried cable; SDG&E and the Imperial Irrigation District still publish NO open conductor GIS, so San Diego County and Imperial Valley distribution stays thin — treat every unmarked canal and reservoir as wired. Desert/ag hardened: dry playas & ephemeral washes excluded, named canals kept. |
2,716 | ✈ Get |
| Arizona Lake Havasu (Lake Havasu City SPB) & the Parker Strip on the Colorado · Lake Mead, Lake Mohave & Willow Beach · Lake Powell south end (Wahweap, Antelope Point, Glen Canyon) · the Salt River chain (Roosevelt, Apache, Canyon, Saguaro), the Verde reservoirs (Bartlett, Horseshoe) & Lake Pleasant. HIFLD + OSM + CA-CEC (California Colorado bank) + UT transmission + FAA DOF. Desert-hardened: dry playas & ephemeral washes excluded. |
436 | ✈ Get |
Alaska · 3 packs · 5,191 crossings
| Alaska Southcentral — Lake Hood, Anchorage, the Mat-Su lakes & the Kenai · Southeast — Ketchikan to Skagway |
3,050 | ✈ Get |
| Alaska Interior & Southwest Fairbanks — Chena, Harding & Birch, now over Doyon Utilities' Fort Wainwright / Eielson / Tanana Flats network · Talkeetna–Denali railbelt (Willow-Healy Intertie) · Bristol Bay — Iliamna, Naknek & Dillingham · Kodiak & Afognak, with village conductor from the NOAA/Alaska Geospatial Office community maps |
372 | ✈ Get |
| Alaska — Backcountry Strip Wires The strip-proximity product for the highest off-airport-ops state: power lines within 1 nm of an Alaska airstrip or SEAPLANE BASE plus a 3 nm approach/departure band along runway heading — 326 strips carry mapped wires, including 71 seaplane bases. Built from the NOAA/Alaska Geospatial Office community maps (village conductor surveyed by AVEC, Alaska DCRA and the North Slope Borough), Doyon Utilities' interior network, Alaska Energy Authority, AK DNR, HIFLD and OSM. Complements the two Alaska over-water packs (this one covers the wire you fly INTO on short final, not the one over the lake). READ THIS BEFORE TRUSTING A CLEAN STRIP: on 2026-08-01 the village survey moved 39 strips that this pack previously showed as clean into the wire list, 13 of them seaplane bases. A strip reading clean means no source maps a wire there — it has never meant there is none. |
1,769 | ✈ Get |
Canada · 8 packs · 59,656 crossings
| British Columbia South Coast & Salish Sea · Vancouver Island west · North Island/Central Coast · Okanagan–Shuswap · Kootenays |
7,810 | ✈ Get |
| Alberta Kananaskis & the Bow valley — Ghost, Bearspaw, Glenmore, Chestermere & the Bow through Calgary · Rocky Mountain House & the North Saskatchewan River — Abraham Lake, Brazeau & the Bighorn · Lac La Biche & Cold Lake — the NE float country · Lesser Slave Lake & Utikuma · Medicine Hat & the South Saskatchewan — the river through town to the Red Deer confluence, Lake Newell & the Brooks irrigation lakes, Cypress Hills · Lethbridge & the Oldman — Oldman Reservoir, St. Mary, Waterton, the Belly, Travers & McGregor Lake. EPCOR and ENMAX publish no open conductor GIS — OpenStreetMap + CanVec 50K + Government of Alberta / AltaLIS + FortisAlberta eMap + City of Medicine Hat municipal electric. |
1,087 | ✈ Get |
| Saskatchewan Lac la Ronge & the northern lakes · Qu’Appelle system from Lake Diefenbaker |
7,199 | ✈ Get |
| Manitoba Winnipeg & the Red/Assiniboine · the Interlake — shores of Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba & Winnipegosis (Grand Rapids, Norway House) · the Whiteshell & the Winnipeg-River hydro-dam corridor (Pointe du Bois to Pine Falls, Lac du Bonnet) · Thompson & the Nelson–Burntwood north. Manitoba Hydro publishes no open conductor GIS — OpenStreetMap + CanVec 50K only. |
2,359 | ✈ Get |
| Ontario Muskoka & Georgian Bay · Kawartha–Haliburton · Temagami–Nipissing · Ottawa River · Lake of the Woods |
13,435 | ✈ Get |
| Québec Laurentides–Outaouais · Mauricie–Lanaudière · Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean · Abitibi · Capitale–Charlevoix |
26,883 | ✈ Get |
| Atlantic Canada Saint John River — Mactaquac (345 kV) to Fredericton, Grand Lake & Saint John (NB) · Bras d’Or Lake & Cape Breton (NS) · Halifax & the South Shore lakes — Chester, Mahone Bay, Bridgewater (NS) · Gander Lake & Terra Nova (NL) · Deer Lake, Grand Lake & the Humber — the Newfoundland floatplane hub. Nova Scotia is now utility-grade: Nova Scotia Power publishes its whole province-wide network, and its 185,830 overhead conductors are in here (underground filtered out at source) alongside NSTDB transmission. NB Power, NL Hydro and Maritime Electric still publish no open conductor GIS — those three provinces are OpenStreetMap + CanVec 50K. |
800 | ✈ Get |
| Yukon & NWT Whitehorse & the Schwatka Lake floatplane base — the Yukon River, Miles Canyon, Marsh Lake, Lake Laberge & the Yukon Energy 138 kV corridor (Riverside–Takhini) · Yellowknife & Great Slave Lake — Yellowknife Bay, Back Bay, the North & East Arms, Prosperous & Prelude, the Snare-hydro 115 kV lines into the city · Hay River & the west basin — Kakisa, Buffalo Lake & the Fort Providence approaches. NWT Power Corp (NTPC) publishes no open conductor GIS — OpenStreetMap + CanVec 50K only; Yukon adds Yukon Energy transmission. |
83 | ✈ Get |
Midwest & Plains · 5 packs · 29,895 crossings
| Minnesota Central lakes (Alexandria–Brainerd–Mille Lacs) · north woods, Boundary Waters & Voyageurs · Duluth, the St. Louis estuary & the North Shore, on Minnesota Power's own overhead network |
11,065 | ✈ Get |
| Wisconsin Minocqua Northwoods (Vilas/Oneida) & Hayward–Chetek · Lake Winnebago & the Fox chain · the Madison Yahara lakes · St Croix & the Upper Mississippi |
5,147 | ✈ Get |
| Michigan Oakland Co lake chain · Grand Traverse–Charlevoix · Houghton–Higgins · Les Cheneaux & St Marys · Keweenaw–Portage |
1,487 | ✈ Get |
| Ohio River & Cincinnati The Ohio River mainstem from Meldahl through Markland to McAlpine — greater Cincinnati, Covington/Newport and the Licking mouth, Lawrenceburg & Aurora IN · the Great Miami (Hamilton, Middletown, Acton & Caesar Creek lakes) · the Owen/Grant County lake country (Williamstown, Bullock Pen, Elmer Davis, Boltz) & the Kentucky River mouth at Carrollton · the Licking River and Kincaid Lake · the Kentucky River pools at Frankfort · Louisville, the Salt River & Taylorsville Lake. HIFLD + OSM + Boone County/NKY GIS transmission + Owen Electric primary & secondary + Duke Energy Kentucky, Indiana (Clark County, between Sellersburg and Henryville) and Ohio (Ross Township / Millville) + City of Hamilton + Lawrenceburg Municipal + USACE Inland-ENC charted clearances over the Ohio navigation pools + FAA DOF. |
10,463 | ✈ Get |
| Plains & Ozarks The White River chain in the Ozarks (MO/AR) — Table Rock, Beaver, Bull Shoals, Norfork & Lake Taneycomo · the Osage chain (MO) — Lake of the Ozarks, Harry S Truman & Stockton · the Neosho/Grand chain (OK) — Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, Lake Hudson & Fort Gibson · the Iowa Great Lakes — West/East Okoboji & Spirit Lake · the two big upper-Missouri reservoirs — Lake Sakakawea (ND) & Lake Oahe (SD/ND). HIFLD + OSM + SPP 69 kV sub-transmission + Iowa certified-sites overhead + USACE/NOAA ENC charted clearances over the Missouri navigation channel & the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River system + FAA DOF. Prairie-hardened: alkali playas & intermittent draws excluded. |
1,733 | ✈ Get |
Northeast & Mid-Atlantic · 5 packs · 103,457 crossings
| New York Adirondacks & Champlain shore · Finger Lakes |
21,139 | ✈ Get |
| Maine Sebago & the Rangeley chain · Moosehead, Millinocket & the Allagash |
4,286 | ✈ Get |
| NH & Vermont Winnipesaukee, Squam & Sunapee across to Lake Champlain — both New Hampshire utilities now present: Eversource/PSNH plus New Hampshire Electric Co-op's own pole-to-pole spans across all six co-op districts (the co-op is what actually serves the Lakes Region and North Country shorelines). NHEC's set is its 2025 ROW work plan, ~730 of ~5,600 line-miles: where a span is there is conductor, but a gap means nothing. |
31,106 | ✈ Get |
| Southern New England Quabbin & the Connecticut River (Springfield–Hartford–Middletown) · Cape Cod & Plymouth kettle ponds, Buzzards Bay & the Islands · Candlewood–Housatonic (western CT) · Narragansett Bay & the RI reservoirs. HIFLD + OSM + RIGIS RI transmission + NOAA/USACE ENC charted clearances + FAA DOF. |
24,121 | ✈ Get |
| Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake tidewater — Hampton Roads, the James & York · the tidal Potomac (DC, NoVA) & the upper bay (Annapolis, Baltimore, MD Eastern Shore) · the Susquehanna at Harrisburg & the head of bay · the NJ Pine Barrens, Barnegat shore & the Great Egg Harbor back-bays (Ocean City, Sea Isle) · the Delaware River & Bay (Trenton–Philadelphia–Cape May) and the lower Delmarva — Salisbury, Pocomoke, inland Sussex DE and the Atlantic coastal bays (Rehoboth, Indian River, Assawoman) · and the NJ shore's northern end — Raritan & Sandy Hook Bays, the Navesink & Shrewsbury, Arthur Kill, Kill van Kull, Newark Bay and Upper New York Bay up to the East River seaplane base. Now on Exelon's own per-section overhead network for all three of its Mid-Atlantic utilities — Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric — on Dominion Energy Virginia's own primary feeders across Hampton Roads and NoVA, published under Virginia's hosting-capacity mandate, and on Con Edison's own nodal segments around New York Harbor, plus HIFLD + OSM + Prince William/Loudoun VA + Montgomery PA county transmission + NOAA ENC charted clearances + FAA DOF. PSE&G — the utility for Newark Bay, the Hackensack/Passaic and the tidal Raritan — publishes hosting capacity as points only, with no conductor geometry to ingest, so the New Jersey side of that harbour rests on OSM, HIFLD, ENC and the obstacle file. |
22,805 | ✈ Get |
South · 6 packs · 48,990 crossings
| Florida Winter Haven chain & Kissimmee–Toho · Orlando lakes · St Johns River, Harris chain & Ocala · Choctawhatchee Bay. Now including Duke Energy Florida's own transmission where it has leaked into consultant project publications — the named 69–230 kV lines around DeLand, Barberville, Ocala and Dunnellon. |
2,499 | ✈ Get |
| Georgia The Chattahoochee/Etowah headwater lakes north of Atlanta — Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona & West Point Lake · the Savannah River USACE chain on the GA/SC line — Hartwell, Richard B. Russell & J. Strom Thurmond (Clarks Hill) · the Oconee River piedmont lakes — Oconee & Sinclair · the Atlantic coast Intracoastal Waterway — Savannah, Wassaw/Ossabaw sounds, Brunswick, St Simons/Jekyll, St Marys & the Okefenokee fringe. HIFLD (authoritative Georgia Power geometry) + OSM + NOAA ENC charted clearances over the coastal sounds + FAA DOF. |
6,387 | ✈ Get |
| Louisiana Atchafalaya Basin (Grand Lake, Six Mile Lake, Lake Verret, Morgan City) · Lake Pontchartrain & Maurepas — the giant Entergy 500 kV spans, enriched with USACE/NOAA ENC charted clearances · Calcasieu Lake & Sabine Lake (TX/LA line) · the Mississippi delta down to Venice. HIFLD + OSM + NOAA/USACE Inland-ENC charted clearances + FAA DOF. |
10,117 | ✈ Get |
| Texas Highland Lakes on the Colorado (Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls, Travis, Lady Bird, Lake Bastrop) · the Brazos chain (Possum Kingdom, Palo Pinto, Granbury, Whitney) · Lake Texoma (Red River) & Ray Roberts · Sam Rayburn & Toledo Bend on the TX/LA line · Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston & the Houston Ship Channel / Galveston Bay. HIFLD + OSM + LCRA + SPP 69 kV + City of Bastrop OH + NOAA ENC charted clearances + FAA DOF. |
7,743 | ✈ Get |
| Carolinas & Tennessee Valley The Catawba-Wateree chain (Duke) — Lake James, Norman, Mountain Island, Wylie, Wateree · the SC midlands & Santee-Cooper lakes (Murray, Marion, Moultrie) · the Smokies (Fontana, Santeetlah, Nantahala, Hiwassee, Chatuge) · the Tennessee River navigation chain (Fort Loudoun, Tellico, Watts Bar, Chickamauga, Nickajack) · Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley (Land Between the Lakes). HIFLD (authoritative TVA geometry) + OSM + USACE/NOAA ENC charted clearances over the Tennessee & Cumberland navigation reservoirs + FAA DOF. The web map also carries Duke Energy's recorded transmission easements — 52,225 electric right-of-way polygons reduced to corridor traces. A right-of-way is wider than the wire inside it, so those traces never promote a crossing's confidence and never place a pin of their own; where a pack pin lists duke-row among its sources, another source put it there. They show you where Duke's corridors run where nothing else does. |
19,930 | ✈ Get |
| Eastern North Carolina The Neuse from Smithfield through Goldsboro and Kinston to New Bern and the head of the Neuse estuary · the Tar-Pamlico from Rocky Mount through Tarboro and Greenville to Washington NC, plus the Albemarle/Roanoke mouth. HIFLD + OSM + SIX municipal electric systems published by nobody else — City of Kinston (KDPS) primary, secondary and transmission, Town of Smithfield, Town of Tarboro and City of Rocky Mount (incl. its 69 kV ties) + NOAA coastal ENC charted vertical clearances over the sounds and the ICW + FAA DOF. The web map also carries Duke Energy's recorded transmission-easement corridor traces and Dominion Energy Virginia's primary feeders where they reach down into the Roanoke Rapids tail — both are shown as corridors and mixed overhead/underground respectively, so neither promotes a crossing's confidence nor places a pin of its own. |
2,314 | ✈ Get |
Continent-wide specialty · 3 packs · 37,893 crossings
| Seaplane Bases — US & Canada Wires near the places float pilots actually operate: every power line within 1 nm of a US or Canadian seaplane base plus a 3 nm approach/departure band along charted waterlane headings — 445 of 972 bases carry mapped wires (the rest genuinely read clean). Québec leads (Hydro-Québec's veg-management export — a subset of their grid, tagged honestly), then Vermont, BC, Florida, Ontario, Minnesota. Alaska/Idaho/Montana bases ship in the Backcountry packs. |
7,825 | ✈ Get |
| Hospital Helipads — US & Canada (HEMS) The HEMS product: the wire environment around every hospital and medical-center helipad on the continent — all overhead lines within 0.5 nm of the pad, plus transmission (69 kV+) out to 1 nm, because tall towers matter wider on a helipad approach. Scene landings can't be pre-briefed by any dataset, but the hospital pad is the recurring night destination, and wires are the classic HEMS approach killer. No approach bands are invented — helipad approaches are omnidirectional; per-pad caps keep the CLOSEST wires. Urban distribution is the dominant hazard class here and every dataset undercounts it: absence of a pin never means absence of wires. |
28,745 | ✈ Get |
| MET Towers — United States Every MET (meteorological/wind-prospecting) tower in the FAA obstacle file, as one national pack — 1,323 towers, and the numbers explain why this class kills more ag pilots than any other structure: 345 report NO LIGHTING, 611 NO MARKING, they are guyed (the wires extend far beyond the mast), and they go up in days. The pack splits them into an UNLIT-or-UNMARKED folder (768 towers — the ones to fear) and a lit-and-marked folder, each pin with height, lighting and marking status. The DOF is honest but incomplete below 200 ft: absence of a pin never means absence of a tower. Renders on the map at every zoom in purple. |
1,323 | ✈ Get |
Ag Operations · 12 packs · 240,446 crossings
| Ag Operations — Central Valley CA Per-section wire briefs for the densest aerial-application market in the West — the Sacramento Valley rice country and the San Joaquin. Same method as the Delta pilot: every PLSS section with ≥30% cropland (USDA CDL 2025) briefed against the full wire geometry including distribution; pins mark the MID-FIELD runs (wire crossing the field interior, not the section roads) plus every FAA-DOF MET tower and charted catenary in the valley. CEC transmission + OSM + HIFLD under the hood. |
27,342 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Corn Belt IA/IL Per-section wire briefs for the corn/soybean heartland — Iowa and Illinois, 226k sections screened, the biggest ag region in the stack. Fungicide application season puts more ag aircraft over these fields than anywhere outside the Delta; pins mark the mid-field wire runs (the section-road grid is expected — the diagonal transmission cut across the quarter is what kills), plus every FAA-DOF MET tower and charted catenary. Iowa certified-sites overhead + muni layers + OSM + HIFLD. |
51,969 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Northern Plains ND Per-section wire briefs for the spring-wheat and canola country — North Dakota, where aerial application covers more acres per capita than any state and the Red River Valley runs wall-to-wall cropland. 79 FAA-DOF MET towers in-state — among the thickest concentrations in the country — each pinned with lighting/marking status, plus the mid-field wire runs per section. |
12,233 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Ontario The Ontario ag belt — southwestern Ontario's corn/soy/tobacco country from Windsor through London to the GTA fringe, plus the eastern Ontario dairy belt toward Ottawa. No sections here (lot-and-concession survey), so 66k one-square-mile cells screened against the AAFC Annual Crop Inventory: 4,830 cropland cells carry wires, briefed with mid-field runs from the LIO utility layer + OSM + HIFLD-adjacent sources. Canada publishes no obstacle file, so no MET layer exists — stated honestly. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
9,765 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Southern Plains KS/OK Per-section wire briefs for the wheat belt — Kansas and Oklahoma, 174k sections screened. This is MET-tower country: the wind-prospecting towers that kill more ag pilots than any other structure class cluster exactly here, and every FAA-DOF MET tower ships as its own pin with lighting/marking status. Mid-field wire runs pinned per section; SPP 69 kV sub-transmission + Kansas KCC certified lines + OSM + HIFLD. |
20,824 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Québec The St. Lawrence lowlands — Montérégie, Centre-du-Québec and the Chaudière valley, the densest ag country east of the prairies. The unlock is Hydro-Québec's vegetation-management export: 500k+ distribution line segments loaded for this region alone, so 60% of lowland cropland cells show their wires (4,444 cells briefed). Rang-strip farms mean long narrow fields with the distribution line at the rang road — the mid-field classification pins the lines that cut across instead. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
7,137 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Canadian Prairies The first Canadian ag product — the canola/wheat belt of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, briefed on a 1-square-mile grid (DLS country; 249k cells screened against the AAFC Annual Crop Inventory 2024). 47,613 cropland cells carry wires — the densest ag wire coverage in the whole stack, because SaskPower publishes its ENTIRE 587k-line grid openly, the best utility dataset on the continent. Mid-field runs pinned worst-first (the pack ships the 6,000 highest-exposure cells; the full brief layer holds all 47k). Honest caveats on the card: Manitoba Hydro publishes no line geometry (MB leans on OSM), and Canada has NO public obstacle file — no MET-tower layer exists for Canadian airspace, which is itself a gap worth telling Transport Canada about. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
72,403 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — SE Cotton Belt Cotton and peanut country — Alabama (Tennessee Valley, Black Belt, Wiregrass) and the south-Georgia coastal plain. Mixed survey systems handled honestly: Alabama is briefed by PLSS section, Georgia (metes-and-bounds — no sections exist) on a 1-square-mile grid. 88k units screened against USDA CDL 2025, 3,098 cropland sections carry wires, plus 295 FAA-charted catenaries — the SE river crossings are among the best-charted in the country — and mid-field runs per section. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
5,567 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Texas The #1 ag-aviation state. Texas has no PLSS, so the six ag belts — High Plains cotton, Rolling Plains, the Blacklands, Gulf Coast rice, the Rio Grande Valley and the Winter Garden — are briefed on a 1-square-mile grid instead (149k cells screened against USDA CDL 2025). ALL 299 FAA-DOF MET towers in the belts ship as pins with lighting/marking status — Texas has more of the ag-aviation killer class than any other state — plus mid-field wire runs per cell and 78 charted catenaries. ERCOT-country caveat stated honestly: Texas utilities publish little open GIS, so the wire layer leans on HIFLD + OSM. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
13,064 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Palouse & Columbia Basin The dryland-wheat and irrigated-circle country of eastern Washington and northeast Oregon — the Palouse, the Columbia Basin Project, the Horse Heaven Hills and the Walla Walla valley. 51k PLSS sections screened; 3,427 cropland sections carry wires, briefed with mid-field runs (in circle-pivot country the diagonal feeder to the pivot point is the classic strike), 34 FAA MET towers with lighting/marking, and 134 charted catenaries — many on the Snake and Columbia. Complements the over-water Inland NW pack and the Backcountry West strips. |
7,711 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Mississippi Delta FIRST AG-AVIATION product — per-SECTION wire briefs for the aerial-application heartland (the Arkansas/Mississippi/NE-Louisiana Delta). Every PLSS section with ≥30% cropland (USDA CDL 2025) gets a wire brief: 3,838 cropland sections carry wires, and the pack pins the MID-FIELD runs — lines crossing the field interior rather than following the section roads, the geometry that kills applicators (16% of ag accidents are wire strikes; 61% of those pilots KNEW the wire was there). Plus every FAA-DOF MET tower (guyed, often unlit) and charted catenary in the region. Distribution minor-lines included — this is where the 257k km of ingested US distribution geometry finally earns its keep. |
8,925 | ✈ Get |
| Ag Operations — Carolinas & VA The last piece of the ag map — the cotton/peanut/tobacco coastal plain of eastern North Carolina and Virginia's Southside. 27k one-square-mile cells screened (no PLSS here — metes-and-bounds country): 1,762 cropland cells carry wires, briefed with mid-field runs (road-following lines suppressed), 4 MET towers and 24 charted catenaries. Grid-cell note: unlike PLSS sections, grid-cell edges aren't roads — so lines that mostly follow mapped roads or rail are EXCLUDED from mid-field pins (road-suppression, 2026-07-26); a road-parallel line just outside the 40 m band can still pin. |
3,506 | ✈ Get |
Everywhere else — continental map & state packs →
Packs install as toggleable ForeFlight map layers with briefing waypoints (build 26.0806, expires ~6 months — reinstall for updates). Pins carry terse codes — W uncharted crossing · S span · C charted · D FAA obstacle · V lidar-verified · Q possible · P pilot report — tap any pin for voltage, waterway, clearance height where charted, and coordinates.
How it works — and how to install in ForeFlight
- Pick a pack above and leave your email — your personal download link arrives in a minute (each copy is individually issued).
- Open that email on the device that has ForeFlight and tap its one-tap install link — long-press → Open in "ForeFlight" works best; a normal tap may land on a page that looks like a 404 — that's expected: swipe down and tap Open in ForeFlight.
- Confirm the import — layers appear in Maps → layer selector, waypoints in search.
- Direct download: the email's .zip link in Safari → Files app → Downloads → long-press → Share → ForeFlight (don't unzip).
- AirDrop / email the .zip to the iPad → "Copy to ForeFlight".
- Cloud: drop the .zip in a
contentpackfolder of a linked Dropbox/OneDrive → More → Downloads.
On a computer? Request the pack anyway — the email link works on any device, whenever you're back at the iPad.
over-water span
not in FAA obstacle file
charted / FAA obstacle
pilot-reported / lidar-verified
possible crossing
lidar-confirmed
lidar-clear
unverified single-source (Tier D)
cable ferry / aerial cableway (non-powerline cable)
wire near airstrip / seaplane base / canyon crossing
every dot is a real crossing at its true position — dense areas overlap when zoomed out
Why this exists
In June 2026 a floatplane bound for a North Idaho splash-in struck power lines strung across the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Neither the pilot nor the passenger survived. Like most wires over water, those conductors appeared on no aeronautical chart — spans below 200 ft generally escape the obstacle-reporting requirement, and even where the towers are in the obstacle file, the wire between them often is not. The pattern is not new: Canada's TSB investigated a fatal 2020 wire strike on the Fraser River (A20P0060), a corridor where this database now maps dozens of crossings. Of the 251,915 US crossings mapped here, 99.7% appear in no FAA product.
The toll is on this map too: toggle Wire-strike accidents to see 2,202 wire strikes from the NTSB and Canadian TSB accident files plus 6 wire occurrences reported to Transport Canada's CADORS (positions approximate), at their accident sites — 559 of them fatal. Cross-checked against the FAA obstacle file, only 5 of the 1,475 US accident sites had ANY charted wire within 500 m — the wires that kill are almost never the wires that are charted. (Canada publishes no obstacle file to check against at all.) Wires are not a theoretical hazard; they are one of the most consistent killers in low-level aviation.
How to use this map: brief the wires before the flight, cross rivers at the towers — never mid-span, treat narrows, lake outlets and dam tailwaters as wire terrain, and always inspect a landing area from altitude first. The absence of a pin never clears a reach.
Researchers & developers: the raw datasets behind this map are open (gzipped GeoJSON, WGS84) — index & attribution README. Pilot packs above; same advisory caveats everywhere.
See a wire we're missing? Report it.
Pilot reports close the gaps fastest. Every report is reviewed against satellite imagery before it appears on the map.
One-press reporting — iPhone Action Button
Set up once, then a single press in flight logs your exact position to the review queue — no typing in the air.
Set-up steps (Shortcuts app)
- Shortcuts → + → add: Get Current Location, then Get Contents of URL
(URL
https://mrb.sh/api/wire-report, POST, headerX-API-Key= your key, JSON body with lat / lon / alt_ft / name / source=action-button), then Show Notification. - Name it Log Wire → Settings → Action Button → Shortcut → Log Wire.
Prefer a ready-made signed shortcut, or need a key? Email [email protected].
Data quality
Every release passes independent audits for geometric conformance (each crossing sits on a source line; each span midpoint sits on water), duplicate suppression across overlapping sources, and obstacle-file cross-checking. Crossings carry confidence tiers — A: 129,935 confirmed by two or more independent sources · B: 35,364 single government/utility source · C: 20,139 single community source · D: 129,624 unverified distribution (shown grey, never shipped in packs). Where public lidar exists, possible crossings are checked against airborne point clouds — 611 conductors confirmed to date, and lidar-clear points are demoted rather than deleted. Pilot reports are human-reviewed against imagery before publication.
Seen a wire these maps don't show? Report it
601 of the 1,475 NTSB wire-strike accident sites have no wire in any public dataset — the class only pilot eyes ever find. We flew a lidar probe over every one of them: at 9 sites the point cloud returns a conductor exactly where an aircraft is documented to have hit a wire, 2 of them at accidents that killed or seriously injured someone. Those 9 wires are charted here and appear in no other dataset we know of. At most of the rest the probe found open ground and no wire, or could not answer — thick canopy, or no public lidar at all. It found nothing that lets us close the gap; that still takes pilots. Email a wire report ([email protected], subject "WIRE REPORT") with the location (coordinates or water/strip name), estimated height, date seen, and a photo if you got one safely. Every report is verified against imagery and LiDAR before charting; verified wires ship as PILOT pins in the packs and on the maps.
Sources & methodology
The database is built from 314 verified datasets across four classes, cross-validated against each other. Wire locations are computed by geometric analysis of power-infrastructure records against high-resolution hydrography, then de-duplicated, confidence-tiered, checked against official obstacle files, and verified against lidar and imagery where coverage exists. The full processing pipeline, parameters, and per-source weighting are proprietary to Saint Bernard Aerial.
Power infrastructure (239 providers) AEP / SWEPCO · AEP Texas · ALLETE / Minnesota Power — MNP and SWLP Basic Electric · Alaska DNR · Alaska Energy Authority · Alectra Utilities Corporation · Algoma Power Inc. · Ameren Illinois Company · American Transmission Company · Anderson Municipal Light & Power · Anza Electric Coop · Arizona Public Service · Atikokan Hydro Inc. · BC Geographic Warehouse · BC Hydro · BLM Idaho / NIFC aviation-hazard program · Bluewater Power Distribution Corporation · Bonneville Power Administration · Boone County / Northern KY GIS · Bowling Green OH Municipal Utilities · Broward County GIS · Burlington Electric Dept Pri · Burlington Hydro Inc. · California Energy Commission · Canadian Niagara Power Inc. · Central Maine Power + Versant, via Island Institute · Centralia City Light · Centre Wellington Hydro Ltd. · Chelan County PUD · Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative · City of Bastrop, TX · City of Camden · City of Castroville · City of Cedar Park · City of Coolidge · City of Decatur · City of East Point · City of Gardner, KS · City of Hamilton, Ohio · City of Homestead · City of Kimball Light & Power · City of Kinston · City of Loveland CO · City of Medicine Hat · City of Miami OK · City of Miami, Oklahoma · City of New Westminster · City of Penticton Electric Utility · City of Plummer · City of Ponca City Electric · City of Rock Falls IL · City of Rocky Mount · City of Seaford · City of Sergeant Bluff · City of Sioux Falls · City of South Sioux City · City of Spooner · City of Sumas · City of Tallahassee · City of Valley City · City of Vinton, LA · City of Wauchula · City of Wilton · Clallam County PUD No. 1 — Potential MW Growth Capacity 2022 · Colquitt EMC via Southern GA Regional Commission · Columbia River PUD · Columbiana County, OH · Comanche Electric Coop Assn · Commonwealth of Kentucky GIS · Consolidated Edison Co of New York · Cooperative Hydro Embrun Inc. · Cornwall Street Railway Light and Power Company Limited · Cowlitz County PUD No. 1 · DHS HIFLD · DRMP / Otero County Electric Cooperative · Dominion Energy Virginia — EV_Hosting_Capacity_Available_EB · Duke Energy Florida via Golder/WSP project publications · Duke Energy Indiana via Jacobs Engineering · Duke Energy Kentucky · Duke Energy Ohio via Jacobs Engineering · Duke Energy — DukeTransmission/0 'Duke Energy Transmission Easements' · E.L.K. Energy Inc. · ENMAX Power Corporation · ENWIN Utilities Ltd. · EPCOR Electricity Distribution Ontario Inc. · ERTH Power Corporation · Elexicon Energy Inc. · Enova Power Corp. · Entegrus Powerlines Inc. · Entergy Louisiana · Entergy New Orleans · Espanola Regional Hydro Distribution Corp · Essex Powerlines Corporation · Exelon / Pepco Holdings · FAA · FAA Digital Obstacle File + aerial imagery review · Fairfax County · Festival Hydro Inc. · Flathead Electric Cooperative · Florida DEP · Florida Keys Electric Cooperative · Fort Frances Power Corporation · FortisAlberta · GNWT Centre for Geomatics / NT Power Corp · Garkane Energy Cooperative · GeoYukon · Government of Alberta · GrandBridge Energy Inc. · Greater Sudbury Hydro Inc. · Green Mountain Power · Grimsby Power Incorporated · Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative · Halton Hills Hydro Inc. · Hearst Power Distribution Company Limited · Holy Cross Energy · Homer Electric Association · Howell-Oregon Electric Coop · Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority · Hydro 2000 Inc. · Hydro Hawkesbury Inc. · Hydro One Networks · Hydro One Networks Inc. · Hydro Ottawa Limited · Idaho County Light & Power Coop · InnPower Corporation · Iowa Economic Development Authority · Jamestown Board of Public Utilities · Jefferson County PUD #1 · Kansas Corporation Commission · Knightstown Municipal Electric · LCRA via City of Georgetown · LUMA Energy / PREPA via IEM · Lafayette Utilities System · Lakefront Utilities Inc. · Lakeland Power Distribution Ltd. · Lawrenceburg Municipal Utilities · Lewis County PUD No. 1 — Trimmed Vegetation Time Lapse Map · London Hydro Inc. · Los Angeles Department of Water and Power · Loudoun County, VA · MPW3 Muscatine · Maine GeoLibrary · Manitowoc Public Utilities · Massachusetts Electric Company d/b/a National Grid · Milton Hydro Distribution Inc. · Montgomery County, PA · Muscatine Power and Water · Muscatine Power and Water OH3 · NOAA Office for Coastal Management / Alaska Geospatial Office — Alaska Community Maps · NOAA Office of Coast Survey — ENC Direct to GIS · NREL GDR / Xcel Energy · NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a Eversource Energy — DG hosting-capacity map · NYSEG / Rochester Gas & Electric · Natural Resources Canada · Nephi City UT · New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, published by TKG · New Richmond Utilities · Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution Ltd. · Niagara Mohawk Power Corp d/b/a National Grid · Niagara Peninsula Energy Inc. · Niagara-On-The-Lake Hydro Inc. · Nobles Cooperative Electric · North Bay Hydro Distribution · NorthWestern Energy — Electric Transmission by kV · Northern Ontario Wires Inc. · Nova Scotia · Nova Scotia Power Inc · OSM contributors · Oak City Corporation · Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc · Oklahoma Gas & Electric · Oncor · Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources · OpenStreetMap contributors · Orange & Rockland Utilities · Orangeville Hydro Limited · Oregon GEOHub · Orillia Power Distribution Corporation · Oshawa PUC Networks · Ottawa River Power Corporation · OurAirports · Owatonna Public Utilities · Owen Electric Coop / Northern KY GIS · Owen Electric Cooperative / NKY GIS · PUC Distribution Inc. · PacifiCorp · PacifiCorp — Transmission_and_Distribution_Public · Pacific Gas & Electric · Paducah Power System · Peace River Electric Cooperative · Portland General Electric · Prince William County, VA · Provincial + state/county ferry operators · Public Service Company of New Hampshire d/b/a Eversource Energy · Renfrew Hydro Inc. · Rhode Island GIS · Rideau St. Lawrence Distribution Inc. · Riverside Public Utilities · SECO Energy · Salt River Project · San Diego Gas & Electric · SaskPower · Seattle City Light / Seattle GeoData · Shakopee Public Utilities / MVEC · Sioux Lookout Hydro Inc. · Snohomish County PUD No. 1 — MV_Circuit_Buffer50 · Southern California Edison · Southwest Power Pool · Surprise Valley Electrification Corp · Synergy North Corporation · Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government · The Connecticut Light and Power Company d/b/a Eversource Energy · The Narragansett Electric Company d/b/a Rhode Island Energy · Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. · Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited · Town of Apex NC · Town of Grand Chute, Outagamie County WI · Town of Smithfield Public Utilities · Town of Tarboro · Township of Bonnechere Valley · Township of North Algona Wilberforce · UCNSB · US Army Alaska SDSFIE utility extract, republished on the UAA geomatics AGOL org · US Army Corps of Engineers · US Army Corps of Engineers — IENC · Utah Geospatial Resource Center · Utilities Kingston · VT Open Geodata · Valley Electric Association · Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority · WIN Energy REMC · Wasaga Distribution Inc. · Welland Hydro-Electric System Corp. · Wellington North Power Inc. · Westario Power Inc. · Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association · WyGISC GeoHub · Xcel Energy / Northern States Power Company - Minnesota · Xcel Energy / Public Service Company of Colorado — PSCO_Conductors_GEN_March_2026 Hydrography USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus High Resolution + NHD) · BC Freshwater Atlas · Ontario Hydro Network · Québec GRHQ · Natural Resources Canada CanVec Obstacles & charted clearances FAA Daily Digital Obstacle File · NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts · USACE Inland Electronic Navigational Charts · Canadian Hydrographic Service ENCs Verification USGS 3DEP airborne lidar · NRCan CanElevation lidar · NAIP & satellite imagery · reviewed pilot reportsWire-hazard database © Saint Bernard Aerial. Contains information from © OpenStreetMap contributors and from US and Canadian federal, state, provincial, and utility open-data programs. Data current as of August 6, 2026; wires are built, moved, and removed — this page is a snapshot, not a living chart.