From what I've seen the distance is measured in regular miles [1,2]. Also, I'm not sure what him hitting the power line has anything to do with contacting the airports. Even if he had contacted them, they can only tell him no if they think he would "endanger the safety of the airspace" [3]. So if he had called, he could have just said he'd be flying at a nearby park. Additionally, most of the airports I call are totally clueless (ex: someone told me I couldn't fly a drone within 35 miles of DC - completely not true), and the FAA doesn't even provide a way to contact them. I had to download 3rd party apps to find this information. This guy messed up, but the FAA has created a bunch of complex rules that are hard to follow and provide little benefit.

[1] https://www.faa.gov/uas/where_to_fly/b4ufly/media/UAS_B4UFLY... [2] https://www.faa.gov/uas/where_to_fly/airspace_restrictions/ [3] https://www.faa.gov/uas/faqs/