Report: He Tried To Turn Back For The Runway

A Florida skywriter is dead after his Rawdon T1 went down shortly after take-off on Tuesday.

Authorities identified the pilot as 54-year old James Goggin of Pompano Beach (FL), described by friends as "an astoundingly good pilot." Goggins, known as a skywriter who sometimes wrote religious and inspirational messages on his own nickle, was taking off on his second flight of the day at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines (FL), when the engine apparently quit on him.

"Something went very wrong on the takeoff," said Jim Reynolds, spokesman for the Broward County Aviation Department and Goggin's long-time friend. "It gained very little altitude."

Witnesses corroborated that statement, saying Goggins tried to turn back after the engine quit. "He took off, I heard the engine stall," Scott Ross told South Florida's NBC 6. "Then, he tried to turn back to the airport, which you shouldn't do, and then he kind of... started going down sideways, and then he just went straight down in the ground."

The T1 went down inside the airport's perimeter fence.

"He could fly anything with wings on it," Reynolds said in an interview with the Miami Herald. He said he met Goggin about 20 years ago at an aerobatic contest in Sebring (FL). "As I remember it, he was one of the... hottest aerobatic pilots the world had ever seen."

Goggin was arrested in the 1980s, accused of smuggling 1,000 pounds of cocaine into the US from the Bahamas. He went to prison where, according to Reynolds, he really turned his life around.

"He just expressed that he never wanted to go back and do anything like that again. He just absolutely straightened his life out," Reynolds said. "He paid a heavy price for it."

There was no immediate word on the cause of Tuesday's accident.

[E-I-C Note: I met Jimmy a long time ago... an easy man to befriend and a superb flyer. He set out on a bad course for a while, but did an amazing job of getting his life back in gear and setting his world straight. He was a good soul... and we're going to miss him.]

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
 Regis#: 2706D    Make/Model: EXP    Description: EXP RAWDON T1
 Date: 10/02/2004   Time: 1715
 Event Type: Accident  Highest Injury: Fatal   Mid Air: N  Missing: N
 Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
 City: HOLLYWOOD          State: FL  Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT CRASHED AFTER DEPARTURE UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, THE ONE PERSON ON BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED, THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED, HOLLYWOOD, FL

INJURY DATA   Total Fatal:  1
         # Crew:  1  Fat:  1   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 
         # Pass:  0   Fat:  0   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 
         # Grnd:       Fat:  0   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 
WEATHER: 1725 140/13KTS VSBY10 SCT036 SCT047 BKN055 TEMP29/21 ALT3010       

OTHER DATA
 Activity: Business   Phase: Unknown   Operation: General Aviation
 Departed: HOLLYWOOD, FL        Dep Date: 11/02/2004  Dep. Time: 1714
 Destination: LOCAL          Flt Plan: UNK     Wx Briefing: U
 Last Radio Cont: LOCAL  Last Clearance: CLRD FOR TAKEOFF
 FAA FSDO: FT LAUDERDALE, FL (SO17)       Entry date: 11/03/2004

FMI: www.ntsb.gov