Will Make A Donation To The University's Scholarship Fund To Cover Cost Of Repair To The Aircraft

The president of Iowa State University will no longer be using an airplane owned by the school for trips that mix personal and school businesses.

As we reported Tuesday, ISU president Steven Leath was flying the university's Cirrus SR22, returning from trip to North Carolina last year where he met with potential donors to the school and had "personal business." Leath and his wife own property and a Christmas tree farm in NC.

While landing in Bloomington, IL on the way back to Iowa, he experienced what was described as a "microburst", and the impact caused about $12,000 damage to the airplane. The repairs went largely unreported for more than a year, according to the Associated Press.

Now, he has said he will no longer pilot the airplane, even though he went "above and beyond what is required" by university policy for reimbursement for use of the airplane. He wrote a check to the scholarship fund for $15,000 on Monday.

Leath said that the accident would have been covered by insurance, but the university did not file a claim and covered the cost of the repairs internally for "business reasons." He said he would stop flying the airplane to "allay any future concerns."

(Image from file. Not university airplane)

FMI: www.iastate.edu