On Dec. 13, the Fredericks were at their weekend home in Camden County when a biplane nose-dived into their house while taking off from McKinnon St. Simons Island Airport. The pilot and owner of the plane, James Ronald Wood, 68, was killed when his one-seat biplane crashed off the south end of the airport.
The damage to their home wasn't extensive. It crashed into a section of the overhang of the living room roof, splintering the supports and crushing the soffit, the covering underneath the eaves. The corner wall of the room is sagging and a crack runs from the ceiling a short distance down the corner.
Sitting in the living room of his house, Sinclair Frederick pointed to a window just below where the plane made impact and said, "It didn't even break that window."
It would suggest an easy fix, but the Fredericks' white brick ranch house may be unlike any others in their neighborhood and perhaps the county. Deborah Frederick showed a small plaque found inside an interior wall during a remodeling project that indicates their home is a U.S. Steel house.
It was built in 1959, when U.S. Steel and Foster Gunnison were turning out prefab homes with steel roof trusses and other components. The sturdiness of the steel may be why the window wasn't broken, but it may make repairs difficult.
The roof is repaired, but the rafter tails that extend the roof beyond the exterior walls are exposed underneath because the steel soffit that was crushed isn't readily available, if at all. As far as they can tell, nobody is making the steel materials that would let them restore their house to the way it was before Dec. 13.
The Fredericks were distraught over Woods' death as were their neighbors. Witnesses said they heard popping noises from the experimental plane before the engine quit altogether and the plane went almost straight down.
Now the Fredericks are faced with the lingering aggravation of repairs.
"We've run into the problem of the pilot not having insurance,'' Deborah Frederick said.
The Fredericks learned that, unlike auto insurance - and, under President Barack Obama, health insurance - liability insurance on aircraft is not mandatory.
"There is no statutory requirement for insurance on airplanes,'' said Glenn Allen, a spokesman for the Georgia Insurance Commissioner's Office.
The normal remedy, he said, is for the homeowner's insurer to cover the loss and go after the estate of the person responsible for the loss.
"They would subrogate the damages,'' and the Fredericks shouldn't even have to pay a deductible, Allen said.
But the Fredericks said they have been in touch with Woods' family, and it appears the estate doesn't have the assets to cover the damage.
That leaves them wondering why the Glynn County Airport Commission doesn't require liability insurance.
Robert Burr, executive director of the Glynn County Airport Commission, said the commission doesn't have the authority to require it because such regulation would come under the FAA, which licenses pilots.
The county owns the airports on St. Simons and in Brunswick and the airport commission operates the two facilities.
"We require businesses to have insurance,'' he said. "We own real estate. We lease buildings and real estate."
Others familiar with the issue said that when states have tried to mandate liability insurance for aircraft, the federal government has asserted its authority, saying such a requirement would interfere with constitutionally protected interstate commerce.
DeKalb Peachtree Airport in Atlanta does require plane owners there to have $1 million in liability insurance, said Mike Van Wie, director of the county-owned airport.
The requirement is only for planes based at the airport, he said.
"That's not necessarily for the protection of homeowners,'' Van Wie said. "That's for the protection of the planes here."
Should a pilot accidentally strike and damage another plane while taxiing, for example, the damage would be covered, he said.
He couldn't say whether the policies would cover damage in a crash off airport property.
Van Wie said it's part of doing business at the airport.
"For them to be based here, they have to enter into an agreement with the airport or another tenant,'' he said.
The Fredericks don't know if they'll ever get their house back to some semblance of the way it was.
The roof is fixed and the house stays dry when it rains. Sinclair Frederick is an electrician, so he handled the electrical problems.
But for the steel parts, they're searching wherever they can, so far without luck.
Original article can be found here: http://insurancenewsnet.com
http://registry.faa.gov/N955R
NTSB Identification: ERA15LA075
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, December 13, 2014 in Brunswick, GA
Aircraft: JOHNSON DAVID EARL RENEGADE SPIRIT, registration: N955R
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On December 13, 2014, about 1340 eastern standard time, an experimental amateur-built Johnson David Earl Renegade Spirit, N955R, was substantially damaged when it impacted a residence just after takeoff from Malcom McKinnon Airport (SSI), Brunswick, Georgia. The private pilot was fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local, personal flight, which was conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.
A witness, who was also a friend of the pilot, reported that he and the pilot had been working on the accident airplane for several weeks, and that the pilot had been having trouble with the airplane's engine. On the day of the accident, the pilot stated that he was going to perform some high-speed taxi tests, and that he might attempt to fly the airplane. The witness observed as the pilot taxied to runway 22, applied engine power, and accelerated down the runway. The airplane became airborne and disappeared from sight behind a row of hangars. The airplane then re-appeared momentarily just over the trees at the end of the runway, and the witness stated that it was in a "nose-high" attitude and appeared to be "struggling."
The airplane came to rest upright against a residence. The forward fuselage and cockpit area sustained significant aft crushing damage, and the empennage remained intact. First responders stated that fuel was leaking from the airplane. There was no postcrash fire.
The airplane was subsequently recovered from the accident site, and further examination of the airframe and engine was scheduled for a later date.
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