PURPOSE: To detect a defective part in a short period of time, to make the oversight of detecting a defective part hard to occur, and to reduce the burden on the inspector.

CONSTITUTION: An equipment for automatically inspecting an overhead cable 5 is provided with a mobile machine 1 that can move by itself on the overhead cable 5, and a video camera 4 that is installed on the mobile machine 1 and that images the overhead cable 5 and records the image on video tape incorporated in the camera 4. The apparatus is further provided with apparatus 2 that is installed in the mobile machine 1 for lighting up the overhead cable 5, a line sensor that is installed in the mobile machine 1 for detecting the light reflected from the overhead cable, and an abnormality signal outputting section that operates the video camera 4 when the quantity of the reflected light detected by the line sensor is an abnormal value.