mooneygirl Posted April 21, 2015 Report Posted April 21, 2015 I am so happy that Richard was not seriously injured. Airplanes and boats can easily be replaced. http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2015/4/20/small_plane_crashes_.html LAKELAND -- The pilot of a small plane escaped in the nick of time after the aircraft crashed in a Lakeland neighborhood. The Polk County Sheriff's Office says about 3 p.m. a single engine plane started having mechanical problems in the air before crashing into the neighborhood, near the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. People living along Pipkin Creek in Lakeland captured the dramatic scene- a plane down and on fire in their quiet neighborhood. Julie Richmond said she was home when a man started frantically banging on her door. "He just said ‘there's a plane crash, plane crash.’ So I just went out there and I opened the door and I ran out and he said "call 911" and I called 911,” she said. The sheriff's office says the pilot, 55-year-old Richard simile of Auburn, Alabama radioed he was having mechanical problems. They say he tried to land at Lakeland Linder Airport but didn't make it. Instead, he narrowly missed an open field and came down by a row of houses and a horse farm. "All the horses in the horse farm were just running around going absolutely insane so the first thing we did was we pulled in and got the horses under control and then we came out here and there was just pieces everywhere, just the plane was just spread out everywhere,” said Logan Schmidt, witness. The pilot managed to get out of the plane and walked away with minor injuries but witnesses say as soon as he escaped, the plane caught on fire. "The plane was trashed. The whole front end was all done. Just mangled,” said Keaton Dixson, witness. No one on the ground was hurt but the back end of a boat sitting next to the plane was badly damaged, as well. "I'm just glad nobody got hurt. I'm glad he got out fine and I'm glad, because that's my friend's house, the boat, and everything and I'm glad they weren't home and it did not crash into any house,” Richmond said. We reached the pilot by phone and he declined to comment. Officials say the crash was not related to the Sun N' Fun International Fly-In and Expo which starts Tuesday. Quote
carqwik Posted April 21, 2015 Report Posted April 21, 2015 New 2015 Acclaim...N608MR still registered to the factory. Great outcome for the pilot... 1 Quote
Urs_Wildermuth Posted April 21, 2015 Report Posted April 21, 2015 Good outcome for the pilot indeed. Not a good one for what must be one of the first new Acclaims to leave the factory? Will be interesting to see what caused it. 1 Quote
mooneygirl Posted April 21, 2015 Author Report Posted April 21, 2015 Here is a link for some video that shows Richard taking video! http://www.theledger.com/article/20150420/NEWS/150429987?p=2&tc=pg He looks very good to me. I don't know if this is one of the many Acclaim/Ovation that were in various stages of being complete when factory went in to hibernation, or whether this is an all new model. Regardless, Richard did a great job, especially when you see how close the houses were. Quote
Jim Peace Posted July 6, 2015 Report Posted July 6, 2015 Any updates as to what happened so we can all learn or is it top secret........ Quote
Robert C. Posted July 7, 2015 Report Posted July 7, 2015 Richard was the dinner speaker at the Chattanooga PPP that I attended now 4 weeks ago. Very entertaining and educational in many ways, but while he gave all the factual details of the flights he begged off from commenting on possible reasons for the engine failure. He clearly felt that he could not discuss the causes while the investigation was still underway. The only hint he gave that I can recall wasn't a hint at all, more a comment that they thought that they were getting closer to understanding the cause. Interesting tidbits: the picture(s) looks like he slammed into the parked boat trailer, but Richard said it was at the end of the slide, the Acclaim bumped into it, he got out and walked away before it all caught fire. He also showed with pictures where he touched down and pointed out all the things he DIDN'T notice while selecting the touchdown point and the direction of landing but that he saw afterwards when walking around and taking pictures (powerlines, trees, etc). As i recall he also mentioned that he came from the "opposite" direction and didn't cross the road as most press photos and footage suggest. Robert Quote
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