Wednesday, September 20, 2017

3 times experimental planes have crashed in Clark County, Ohio

Some aviation enthusiasts who do not have their pilot licenses have turned to home-built ultralight aircraft to fly.

To fly a plane without a license, a person’s aircraft must follow the ultralight aircraft criteria: weigh less than 254 pounds, limit to five U.S. gallons of fuel, maximum speed of 55 knots and contain a single occupant, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Any aircraft that exceeds the above criteria must have an operator that has a pilot certificate.

Here are a few instances in which those ultralight planes have been involved in injuries or even death:

September 17, 2017:

A Springfield man will undergo back surgery after the plane he was flying crashed into a fence in Pleasant Twp. James “Doug” Lewis, 46, crashed his ultralight on Sunday afternoon in the 6200 block of Pleasant Chapel Road. 

His wife Linda told this newspaper this was his first flight after recently purchasing the aircraft.  Everything was going well until it came time to land, she said. 

“He was afraid he wasn’t going to have enough room, so he was going to make a pass and come back,” she said, “and upon trying to make the pass, he crashed.”


Linda Lewis (left) and Doug Lewis (right) stand in front of the ultralight aircraft that crashed on September 17, 2017.


 February 19, 2017: 

A 24-year-old Wilmington man was piloting a homemade plane when it crashed in a field near I-70 in Harmony Twp. 

Jordan Spier, who had a pilot’s license, was the only occupant of the Macleod homebuilt fixed wing single-engine experimental plane and was pronounced dead at the scene. 

He had taken off from his uncle’s private airstrip in the 300 block of Titus Avenue before crashing shortly before 5 p.m. 

 July 22, 2016:

A husband and wife died when their experimental aircraft crashed in a cornfield in Harmony Twp.

Relatives said the couple were flying to Michigan from Georgia when Levon King’s RV-9A aircraft went down as heavy rains and lightning rolled through the area. Authorities said they are still collecting information and it’s not clear what role, if any, weather may have played.

The couple was just seven miles east of Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport when they crashed. 

Story and video ➤ http://www.springfieldnewssun.com

1 comment:

  1. Of the three supposed examples of ultralight aircraft listed, only the first is a true Part 103 ultralight by FAA standards. The second two were Experimental Category aircraft. The three aircraft are unrelated as were the nature of their accidents. One could make a list of gray automobiles that were involved in accidents within a geographical area but what purpose would it serve?

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