FAA, NTSB Records Note Several Incidents

The safety record of an aviation company that owned an Extra EA300 which went down near Las Vegas last week has come into question following the accident.

Pilot Benjamin Anderson Soyars, 37, of Las Vegas, and Steve Anthony Peterson, a 32-year-old customer from Rohnert Park, CA were fatally injured in the accident.

While the company said following the accident that it had been "incident-free" in its five years of operation, the Santa Rosa, CA newspaper the Press Democrat reports that the FAA and NTSB have noted several safety issues associated with the company, though none has resulted in a fatality. The FAA reportedly took action against the company or its pilots based on complaints involving safety and risky flight maneuvers. One incident in March of last year involved the airplane that went down last week.

The incidents cited range from an airplane flying too low near the Hoover Dam in 2012, and one in which a plane lost power on landing. In that incident, the wing tanks were found to be empty, though the center tank was nearly full.

The company did not respond to inquiries about the safety record, saying only that the accident last week was the only one involving any injury.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov