Questions Arise Over License Status, Plane Ownership

Often, it's instructive to piece together the decision chains that lead to aircraft accidents. Other times, you could lose count of the links.

The Palm Beach Post reports 51-year-old Laurent Gillot is expected to recover after being pried from the wreckage of his Cessna 402B (file photo of type, shown below), after crashing it into the new town hall in Ocean Ridge, FL on Tuesday. The plane skipped off the roof of the building, then hit a utility pole on crowded Boynton Beach.

The FAA is investigating the status of Gillot's medical certificate. The agency says its last record of renewal was dated July 2004. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says it's possible, but rare, that the agency simply has an error in its records.

Officials plan to ask Gillot for documentation of his most recent physical. After he gets out of the hospital, that is.

Of course, it's also possible that the question about his medical status has something to do with his 24 traffic tickets in the last 11 years, including one for driving with an open alcohol container. That one was not prosecuted.

Life just isn't going smoothly for Gillot. The plane he crashed was not his. It was once, but FAA records show he sold it for $50,000 to Jean Bayardelle after going bankrupt in 2006 due to failed investments in housing developments.

Bayardelle, however, is not a pilot. His brother tells the paper he's not aware of any airplane in the family.

The case will certainly be investigated... but at first look, investigators with the NTSB and FAA may have to take a number.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 3990C        Make/Model: C402      Description: 401, 402, Utililiner, Businessliner
  Date: 07/22/2008     Time: 1715

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: BOYNTON BEACH   State: FL   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES ONTO A STREET, BOYNTON BEACH,
  FL

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   1
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: PBI METAR 221733Z 29003KT 10SM FEW040 SCT100 25/19 A3007

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: SOUTH FLORIDA, FL  (SO19)             Entry date: 07/23/2008

FMI: www.faa.gov