ICON A5, N288PJ: Incident occurred March 16, 2022 in Granite Shoals, Burnet County, Texas

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; San Antonio, Texas

Aircraft gear was not up while landing on the Colorado River damaging the landing gear. 

https://registry.faa.gov/N288PJ

Date: 16-MAR-22

Time: 15:10:00Z

Regis#: N288PJ

Aircraft Make: ICON

Aircraft Model: A5

Event Type: INCIDENT

Highest Injury: NONE

Aircraft Missing: No

Damage: UNKNOWN

Activity: PERSONALFlight Phase: LANDING (LDG)

Operation: 91

City: GRANITE SHOALS

State: TEXAS

A ICON A5 aircraft landed gear down into Lake Lyndon B. Johnson on Wednesday, March 16, resulting in damage to the plane but no injuries to the pilot, a Kingsland resident.

“A gentleman from the Shirley Williams Airport in Kingsland, where he keeps his plane, was landing on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson,” Granite Shoals Fire Chief Tim Campbell told DailyTrib.com. “It’s the kind of plane that lands on both water and land, and he forgot to retract the landing gear for a water landing.”

When the plane hit the lake, it nosedived, breaking the windshield and filling with water, Campbell said. As it started to sink, a passerby helped get the pilot safely out then tied a rope to the aircraft and dragged it to shore.

Granite Shoals Fire and Rescue, the Granite Shoals and Marble Falls police departments, and Granite Shoals EMS all assisted. The case will be turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety and then to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

“We didn’t have to do a lot,” Campbell said. “We used some of our ropes to tie it off so it wouldn’t float off and be an obstacle out in the middle of the lake.” 

The plane was secured next to 2510 Belair East Lane until a tow truck hauled it off. The Icon A5 light sport plane has retractable wings, which were folded up and out of the way so it could be towed. It is a two-person plane, but only the pilot was onboard at the time. 

https://www.dailytrib.com