Sheriff Points To High Blood Alcohol In CA UL Accident
The witnesses agreed that David
Brian Lane, an aviation enthusiast known to his friends as "Flyin'
Brian," climbed aboard his white and yellow Sky Raider ultralight
and blasted into the sky. Lane did that almost every day. What they
didn't understand was why the sturdy single-seat bush plane zoomed
up 100 feet and then plunged into the ground, nose-first.
It was 4:26 on Sunday afternoon, and the 53-year-old man was
dead, killed instantly in the crash.
The Sonoma County (CA) Sheriff's Department thinks they have the
answer. Lane's blood alcohol was 0.25 percent, a level that usually
signifies severe impairment and three times the legal limit for
driving on most states' public roads. The Sheriff must investigate
because the FAA does not investigate accidents to ultralight
vehicles. The FAA's Bruce Nelson told the Associated Press that the
FAA would assist the Sheriff's Office if requested, but would not
take lead on the investigation.
The FAA serum alcohol limit is only 0.04 percent, and the FAA
requires pilots to cease drinking no less than eight hours before
flight, regardless of the amount they have had to drink, or the
levels of intoxicants in their bloodstreams. Violating either prong
of this rule usually brings emergency license revocation from the
FAA -- at least, to survivors.
Some ultralight pilots assume that the FARs don't apply to them.
In the case of the Part 91 rules about conduct in the air, they are
wrong in this assumption.
Before Lane is condemned out of hand, it is important to bear in
mind that ethanol in human blood or tissue samples is sometimes the
product of the normal postmortem chemical breakdown process. FAA
and NTSB aeromedical experts have a lot of experience with this,
but it's hard to say whether a county medical examiner would.
Lane, 53, of Santa Rosa, was single and lived on the ranch owned
by his family south of Santa Rosa, CA, taking care of his elderly
father. According to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, he built the
Sky Raider from a kit in 1998.
The airstrip on the Lane ranch was a mecca for local
radio-control hobbyists. "He was a good friend to a lot of people
around here... We'd come out here on weekends and fly
radio-controlled," a neighbor told the Press-Democrat.
Another of Lane's friends, who was not further identified, said
that Lane had served in the Marines in Vietnam. Friend and
next-door neighbor Ed Weber praised Lane on the day of the crash.
"He was a person rich in friends who unfortunately passed away
today doing what he loved," the Press-Democrat quoted Weber.