Little Data Available on Sport-Plane Crashes

Light sport aircraft, like the one in which a beloved local businessman and his co-worker died on Wednesday, carry far fewer safety and licensing requirements than traditional or even homemade and experimental aircraft.

and died off the coast of Dewees Island Wednesday evening when the “flying boat” they were operating plunged from the sky.

Read more about the Dewees Island crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the crash, but a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman has said previously that Smith did not have the aircraft properly registered with the federal government.

"Light sport aircraft are regulated, and pilots are required to have sport pilot certificates or private pilot certificates," said Kathleen Bergen, an FAA spokeswoman. "The vehicle that crashed was a light sport aircraft. It was required to be registered and the operator was required to have a sport pilot certificates or private pilot certificate."

Read an FAA factsheet on light sport aircraft.

Friends say Smith, who was a safety conscious and respected boat captain, would not have operated the aircraft beyond the limits of what he thought was safe.

“Lucas was really the best yachtsman in Charleston,” said Chris McIntire, owner of several motoryachts on which Smith and Donohue worked. “I trusted him completely, more so than anyone else. He was just that good.”

Still, light sport aircraft just aren’t built to the same standard as other aircraft. Even experimental, homebuilt aircrafts require yearly inspections and are built to FAA standards, unlike the light sport aircrafts, which are constructed to FAA-sanctioned manufacturer's consensus standards and get inspected only when they are new.

“Basically, LSAs are not FAA-certified aircraft,” said Vern Ellingstad, a National Transportation Safety Board researcher, who is not involved in the Dewees crash investigation. “Unlike other aircraft, they are not built to an FAA standard.”

The FAA defines a light sport aircraft as being below 1,300 pounds, with fixed landing gear, a single engine and it cannot exceed 138 mph in speed or more than two passengers, among other rules.

The light sport aircraft classification includes small, pleasure aircraft like Smith’s, as well as larger commuter craft that take off and land at small airports.

Smith’s aircraft was reportedly built in the 1980s and he had been operating it for 10 years or so.

The aircraft, a Polar Star, was manufactured by Polaris Motor Srl and a similar version is still available.

Smith’s aircraft consisted of an inflatable boat with a glider wing and propeller attached. He called it his “flying boat.”

The National Weather Service reported wind gusts up to 18 mph on Wednesday, and according most light sport pilots, their aircraft are highly impacted by strong winds.

In the general aviation world, which includes all planes not operated by commercial airlines or the military, roughly 80 percent of crashes are attributed to pilot error, said Ed Leinweber, a Wisconsin attorney and freelance writer who covers the light sport aircraft industry.

Flying into bad weather is the top reason many planes crash, Leinweber said.

“But you never know what happened up there,” Leinweber said. “People should just keep an open mind and wait for the official determination.”

The age of the craft could have played a role, but something unexpected, such as a bird strike, could have taken the aircraft down, he said.

“This machine was an early design,” Leinweber said. “Some designs were good and stood the test of time. Others have come and gone.”

There isn’t enough data currently to say why LSAs most often crash, Ellingstad said. Currently the NTSB is trying to learn more about experimental, homebuilt aircraft, but LSAs are not part of that study.

In 2009, the most recent year available, roughly 25 percent of all experimental aircraft crashes resulted in fatalities. That’s roughly five percent higher than all of general aviation.

“Somewhere down the road, I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked at (the light sport) segment,” Ellingstad said. “It’s surprising how little we know about this segment of aircraft.”

Rulings on what caused Wednesday's crash won't be available for a few weeks, said Peter Knudson, and NTSB spokesman. The FAA sent inspectors to the crash scene on Thursday. They'll turn their report over to the NTSB, which will release a report on the accident thereafter.