Pilot Had Been Flying Since 1947

Witness Kent Bryan says one moment, he looked up in the air and saw Ivan Hittle's ultralight aircraft flying over the Buenna Terra airport, near Topeka, KS Tuesday. When he turned away, however, he heard a strange noise.

"Next thing I heard, you know, was like two wings flapping together basically and then I turned around and the wings were going apart and at that point I said 'Oh my God,' and the guy tumbled down and hit the ground and I took off running," Bryan told Topeka's KTKA-7.

Bryan rushed over to where the broken ultralight lay, and he could see that Hittle, the plane's sole occupant, wasn't moving. He was pronounced dead at the scene by firefighters, sheriff's deputies and officers with the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Investigators believe the small plane's wings collapsed as Hittle flew to the nearby Billard Airport.

"He was headed north and made a left hand turn to head back south. That's when he experienced structural failure," said Dan McCollum, Kansas Highway Patrol.

While a pilot's license is not required to fly ultralights, Hittle's son Wayne told KTKA his father had one nonetheless... in fact, the senior Hittle first earned his pilot's license in 1947.

Wayne Hittle added that he and his father built the aircraft involved in the accident (which appears to be a Mitchell Wing variant--E-I-C) in 1979.

**   Report created 6/28/2006   Record 1
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: UNREG        Make/Model: ULTR      Description: UNREGISTERED ULTRALIGHT
  Date: 06/27/2006     Time: 1830

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: TOPEKA   State: KS   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  UNREGISTERED ULTRALIGHT, SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, CRASHED, THE ONE PERSON ON
  BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED, BUENA TERRA AIRPORT, TOPEKA, KS

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: VFR

OTHER DATA

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: WICHITA, KS  (CE07)                   Entry date: 06/28/2006

FMI: www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/preliminary_data/