Sun, Jun 22, 2008
Aircraft Was Conducting Aerial Survey Of Black Bears
The pilot and passenger of a Piper J-3 Cub were lost Friday in
an apparent stall-spin accident over Placid Lakes Airport near Lake
Placid, FL.
WFLX Fox 29 reported pilot Mason Smoak, 33, and passenger David
Maehr were killed on impact when the single-engine Piper went down
shortly after 1200 local time. It was unclear at the time whether
the aircraft was taking off or landing.
"The plane came out of the sky and went straight into the
earth," Capt. Paul Blackman of the Highlands County Sheriff's
Office said witnesses told him. "It apparently stalled, did a 360
and went straight down."
Smoak was a well-known local citrus grove owner and Maehr was a
University of Kentucky associate professor of conservation biology
on sabbatical.
According to the Archibold Biological Station in Lake Placid,
they were conducting aerial surveys of Highlands County black bears
when they crashed.
In a statement issued Saturday by M. Scott Smith, dean of the
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Maehr had helped
reintroduce elk to eastern Kentucky, and his research supported
efforts to sustain black bear populations in Appalachia and the
endangered panther in Florida.
Smoak, a third-generation citrus grove owner in Highlands and
Hardee County, was serving as president of the Highlands County
Citrus Growers Association and as chairman of the Heartland
Agricultural Coalition.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the
cause.
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