Day Care Company CEO Fatally Injured In Accident Last Week

The type of airplane involved in an accident last Wednesday that fatally injured the CEO of a chain of day care centers in Texas has a history of engine issues, according to a lawyer who is also a licensed pilot.

The accident, which occurred September 10th, fatally injured 55-year-old David Anderson of Dallas, who along with his wife were co-owners and operators of the Play and Go Depot day care centers in northern Texas. Anderson had been a licensed pilot since 1975. The airplane, a Piper Aerostar, was registered to Anderson.

The Dallas Business Journal reports that the plane went down near Austin-Bergstrom airport at 1:26 p.m. local time. Anderson had departed from Dallas at 12:30 pm, according to the FAA, and did not report any issues with the airplane prior to the accident.

Attorney Mike Slack said in an interview with the paper that the Piper Aerostar has a "long history of engine failure" during the takeoff and landing phases of flight, and that "any kind of disruption in the normal sequence of events in the landing or the takeoff of the Aerostar is prone to cause problems and usually a crash."

Of course, the NTSB as yet hasn't even released a preliminary report from the accident.

Slack told the paper that the Aerostar "is a great airplane when both engines are operating at altitude," but it can be "unforgiving" if there is any kind of "anomaly."

Slack said that it was unlikely that Piper would be sued in connection with the accident because the airplane was manufactured in 1975, and a federal law makes suits against manufacturers involving airplanes more than 18 years old "difficult." He also said that the Aerostar was manufactured by Piper before they went through a bankruptcy, and the terms of the reorganization of the company included a discharge of liability for the Aerostar.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.slackdavis.com