It's been a tough year for the modestly-attended
2003 Sun 'n Fun Fly-In. While we're thankful that we have no
fatalities to report, a number of serious accidents
have occurred, some in a manner that seem to bear out
the concerns we raised in our six-part ANN series
earlier this month.
At this writing, we have just received word of a
Monday evening light aircraft accident in the lightplane area,
similar to the incident that claimed a life, and injured another,
two years ago in the same area. In this accident, an AGA Banbi, a
two-place light aircraft powered by a Rotax 912, apparently failed
to get airborne despite "struggling in ground effect for the
length of the runway." The aircraft went down before it could hit
any of the cars in the parking lot that lie off one end of the
active lightplane runway.
The reported conditions offered little to no
headwind (mostly crosswind), high temperatures (about 90-95
degrees) and a pretty full load (two people, plus) aboard a
lightweight hotrod that (depending on version) is capable of as
much as 200 mph. Not remotely a STOL aircraft, we wonder about the
wisdom of operating such a loaded aircraft... or off an
occasionally rough, unimproved, runway whose conditions obviously
would lengthen, significantly, any take-off operation--especially
on a hot day. One person was transported to the hospital and
another apparently emerged with minor injuries. This could have
been a lot worse. ANN has long questioned the
length, position, and conditions of the limited runway that SnF
operates light sport aircraft from... especially since in one
particular direction, an aborted take-off or failed landing could
deposit an imperiled aircraft right in the midst of a well traveled
parking area... and handicapped parking, to
boot.
Earlier in the week, a Stearman turned
turtle; an experimental Escapade screwed up its main gear; and a
trike ate some vegetation -- all without reported injury.
Unfortunately, we're sorry to report that Titan Aircraft's slick
P-51 replica, the T-51, had a landing gear failure requiring a
landing with gear deployed asymmetrically. (The landing did some
significant damage but company officials think that everything's
fixable. They expect to see it flying again at Oshkosh
2003.)
Unfortunately, one of our most-serious concerns revolved around
the way that Sun 'n Fun moves airplanes on the ground...
'way too close to pedestrians, according to a
number of industry luminaries. This year our worst fears were
realized when a Canadian gentleman, assisting with parking a
Mooney, got clobbered by the aircraft after dark, and was
hospitalized as a result.
Even more serious: a 12-year-old boy was struck in
the back of his head by the wing of a taxiing Bonanza while he was
walking alongside his parents on Saturday... the blow rendered
the child unconscious and not breathing on
the ground. Resuscitation efforts were successful, but the
boy has been hospitalized as a result. We've obtained the police
reports and some other investigative details and will file a report
about both those accidents shortly... but we still maintain that
SnF (knowingly... because they've been criticized quite publicly
about this) moves aircraft 'way too close to people... especially
in highly-trafficked areas and the warbird parking area. In our
opinion, there's no excuse for this, and we strongly recommend that
more safety-minded procedures be adopted swiftly. More info to
follow...