Pilot’s Second Incident Since June Prompts Agency To Get Involved

The FAA is looking at an accident involving an ultralight aircraft that went down Sunday night in St. Amant, Louisiana. Normally, the FAA wouldn’t be involved in an accident involving an unregistered aircraft … but it is the second time the pilot has wrecked his aircraft in just under three months.

The Advocate newspaper reports online that witnesses say that on Sunday, pilot Landon Barker, 31 of Prairieville, LA, fell about 100 feet from the aircraft and sustained multiple injuries. He was flown by helicopter to a local hospital, according to St. Amant fire chief James LeBlanc. Barker posted on Facebook on Monday that he “wanted to let everyone know that I’m going to make it.”

The ultralight went down in a field near several homes.

“I’m not sure yet what caused the crash,” Barker wrote. Someone said the wing folded and another said the prop belt started slipping and sent me falling 100 foot to the ground. All I remember was it starting to take a hard dive to the right and trying to get it into a open field. My next memory was being loaded into the helicopter.”

In the previous incident on June 2, Barker made an emergency landing in the Diversion Canal which separates Ascension and Livingston parishes, according to the paper.

Barker was uninjured in that incident, but the ultralight, a Quicksilver which is equipped with floats, had to be dragged out of the canal.

Two incidents so close together made the FAA sit up and take notice. FAA spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said that while the agency does not normally investigate such accidents “the same way we would a registered aircraft … Because this is the operator’s second crash in recent weeks, we are taking a closer look at it.”

The FAA said that the Quicksilver apparently hit a tree and went down in the field. The investigators said they did not know if it was the result of pilot error or a mechanical malfunction.

(Image of float-equipped Quicksilver aircraft captured from unrelated YouTube video. Not accident aircraft)

FMI:  www.ascensionsheriff.com