Controversial Amphib Takes A Dive... Literally

In a story that we must assure you is NOT a holdover from our Annual April 1st Parody Edition, we can report that one of the few Icon A5s currently 'in the wild' had a pretty serious water landing issue this past weekend... and, well... sunk.

Saturday afternoon, a single Icon A5 unsuccessfully executed a water landing (shown here, courtesy of Miami Dade Fire Rescue) near Biscayne National Park and ran into some undefined trouble which resulted in the sinking of the aircraft. Two male occupants were reportedly uninjured and were found by a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue boat that had been sought by Florida Fish and Wildlife and park officials. Both occupants were found sitting on the top of the wing of the almost fully submerged vehicle.

Since the wreck site is in salt water, damage is expected to be heavy, pretty much writing off avionics, instrumentation and powerplant equipment unless speedy and aggressive measures were taken to recover and rinse out the vehicle (though even that may not be enough).

Icon Aircraft, of course, is the company that came under extensive scrutiny over a year ago following an ANN investigation into a number of questionable business practices, statements, and promises that were ultimately found to be questionable (at best) and false/unfounded (at worst).

Despite an extensive effort to hype the aircraft in non-aviation media (which produced some pretty ridiculous claims and data from such aeronautically ignorant publications like Playboy, Men's Journal, and others), and a few aviation publications that seemed to, in part, ignore many of the documented shortcomings of the company that has yet to engage in any significant customer deliveries after over a decade of hype and promises and many many many millions of dollars in investment capital, the future of the Icon program still looks highly suspect.

Attempts to question officials and/or fly a representative test aircraft (without disagreeable conditions or overt control by Icon over the editorial process) by a number of credible, critical journalists (including, but not exclusively, those of us at ANN) have been ignored, rebuffed and/or refused by Icon officials... adding even greater doubt about the credibility and survivability of this company and its 'sinking' fortunes.

More info to follow...

FMI: www.iconaircraft.com