Pure idiocy. We better stop giving classical mechanics problems in Physics textbooks since chaos theory makes them unanswerable.
This simple problem can be explained adequetely by classical mechanics.
It could, but only if you could describe the conditions at contact with much more precision. Depending on exactly what part of the aircraft hit the poles, at what angle, at what speed, etc., you will get radically different results.
To a limited degree, the behavior will be more or less the same -- the pole will rotate when hit, and probably acquire horizontal momentum as well, probably flipping end over end a few times like a caber. Exactly how it flips depends on exactly how much moment it takes to break the base, how much flexure is in the pole itself, whether it contacts the ground and at what angle, what surface the ends hit and how they behave, and so on and so on.
However, since we
cannot specify the initial conditions with any accuracy at all, we cannot possibly estimate its final disposition with any usable accuracy. This is, indeed, deterministic chaos in action. Your branding of this as "idiocy" is, therefore, ironic.
As I've noted here numerous times, one cannot predict what number will come up on a thrown die. If we could, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo would be out of business overnight. The light pole impacts are
vastly more complicated than even this intractable example.
