These towers, in the last five to ten years, have become much more popular and utilized as investors look for locations to install wind farms. The same towers have been the subject of NTSB advisories as to the danger they pose to agricultural aviators.

Allen, who was 58 at the time of his death, had logged over 26,000 hours in his agricultural aircraft, had a stellar reputation for safety and ability. “He set the gold standard for aerial application,” said Brent Tadman, farms operation manager for M&T Staten.

 “Steve Allen was a consummate professional and our go-to agricultural aviator. His death was a tragic and unacceptable loss that we all felt,” said Mark Boyd, farms operation manager for Hastings Island. Both of these gentlemen testified that the standard of care required farmers to tell agricultural aviators of obstacles like this one once they are created, something that did not happen in this incident.

Andrew Moore, executive director for the National Agricultural Aviation Association stated, “We believe that this case, and the result, sets the standard of care in the agricultural and MET community. Now those individuals who lease land for the use of METs and wind energy investors have to recognize that the standard for them is to mark these towers and obstructions so that agricultural aviators will be able to be aware of their presence and avoid them accordingly. Strobe lighting, painting and other visible markings along with databases showing exact geographical locations of these towers are some of the proper safety standards to use to protect agricultural aviators from low-level towers.”

“Agricultural aviators deal with hazards every day they are in the air and they need to know of obstacles and hazards. We believe this case establishes a standard of care in the community, and wind energy and agricultural businesses are now on notice of this standard of care that is required of them and the potential exposure that they face, should they not properly and adequately mark these towers so that members of the aviation community are not killed,” said Rod Thomas, owner of Thomas Helicopters in Gooding, Idaho and 2014 president of the National Agricultural Aviation Research and Education Foundation who also testified in this action.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause(s) of this accident to be an in-flight collision with an unmarked meteorological evaluation tower (MET) during an aerial application flight due to the pilot's failure to see and avoid the obstacle. Contributing to the accident was the lack of visual conspicuity of the MET and the lack of information available to the pilot about the MET before the flight.

This matter was scheduled for trial in Contra Costa County in front of Hon. Laurel Brady on October 6, 2014. Previously, Mrs. Allen had helped sponsor legislation in California and Colorado to have towers of this nature marked and identified so that agricultural aviators would be notified and aware of MET’s existence so they could be avoided.