Experienced Aerobatic Pilot Mourned by Local Aviation Community
An accident described by witnesses as the in-flight breakup of a Seamax M-22 has claimed the life of 57-year-old Kent I. Feuerring of Sagaponack, New York. Mr. Feuerring was an advertising executive, the president of the East Hampton Aviation Association, a highly-experienced aviator, and a skilled aerobatic pilot.
East Hampton Town police received a 911 call shortly after 12:30 EDT on Thursday, 6 October 2022 reporting a plane down along the water’s edge of Three Mile Harbor‘s Oyster Shores.
In an email, Captain Christopher L. Anderson of the East Hampton Town Police put forth that witnesses reported "… what appeared to be a wing that broke off the fuselage before the aircraft spiraled downward into the water.”
FAA officials disclosed that the downed aircraft was a Seamax M-22 (SN-168) fixed-wing, two-seat amphibious seaplane of which Mr. Feuerring had been the sole occupant.
NTSB Investigator Peter Knudson reported the Seamax’s right wing was discovered five-hundred to one-thousand-feet from the main part of the aircraft’s wreckage. Mr. Knudson stated also that the accident had been captured on surveillance video.
Online flight-tracking data indicates the Seamax departed East Hampton Town Airport at 12:19 EDT on Thursday, 6 October, and remained aloft approximately nine-minutes, with its last radar-return being received at 12:28 EDT.
Sources close to Mr. Feuerring indicate he acquired the Seamax M-22—a Brazilian, single-engine, amphibious, light-sport aircraft—in May 2022. Reports that Feuerring had complained of problems with the airplane are unsubstantiated.
The Seamax M-22’s construction comprises both composite materials and metal components. The aircraft’s two-seat, side-by-side cabin is capped by a hydraulically-actuated bubble canopy. The Seamax M-22 sports a semi-cantilever high-wing, atop which a single, one-hundred-horsepower Rotax 912-ULS engine and pusher-propeller are centrally-located for purpose of facilitating enhanced performance of the aircraft’s cruciform empennage and avoiding water-ingestion. Versions of the M-22 can be constructed to meet the requirements of both the European microlight and U.S. Light Sport Aircraft categories.
Feuerring, a Harvard graduate, was respected in his field. Beginning his career in Hollywood, where he worked as a production accountant for the Oscar-winning film GlenGarry Glen Ross, Feuerring went on to earn a partnership in a film production company called apictures, and produce commercials for companies the likes of Johnson & Johnson and General Motors.
Mr. Feuerring was similarly well-regarded in aviation circles. Erin King-Sweeney, an aviation attorney, former Hempstead Town councilwoman, and director of the airport advocacy group the East Hampton Community Alliance, stated she worked closely with Feuerring in his efforts to preserve the East Hampton Airport.
“He loved local aviation and was always an advocate for local pilots,” King-Sweeney asserted. “He would fly several times a week and loved the East End and being out in the sky flying … There’s risk in everything we do, but he had a passion for it and loved to fly in the morning to enjoy the beautiful Hamptons and sky. He loved just to see the sky and fly over the area.”
Seamax company officials expressed their condolences in a statement reading in part: "Seamax LLC sympathizes with the loss of the pilot of the Seamax M-22 SN 168 aircraft. Unfortunately, the tragic accident occurred this Thursday afternoon (10/06/2022) in NY. Although aware that nothing can compensate for this loss, the company is committed to supporting the family and the investigation of the accident."
Aero-News extends its condolences to the family and friends of Kent Feuerring.
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