3 times experimental planes have crashed in Clark County

Some aviation enthusiasts who do not have their pilot licenses have turned to home-built ultralight planes to fly.

To fly a plane without a license, a person’s aircraft must follow the ultralight vehicle criteria: weigh less than 254 pounds, limit to five U.S. gallons of fuel, maximum speed of 55 knots and contain a single occupant, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Any vehicle that exceeds the above criteria must have an operator that has a pilot certificate.

Here are a few instances in which those ultralight planes have been involved in injuries or even death:

Sept. 17, 2017:

A Springfield man will undergo back surgery after the plane he was flying crashed into a fence in Pleasant Twp. James “Doug” Lewis, 46, crashed his Ultralight on Sunday afternoon in the 6200 block of Pleasant Chapel Road.

His wife Linda told this newspaper this was his first flight after recently purchasing the plane. Everything was going well until it came time to land, she said.

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

“He was afraid he wasn’t going to have enough room, so he was going to make a pass and come back,” she said, “and upon trying to make the pass, he crashed.”

» MORE: Springfield man recovering after crashing homemade plane in Clark County 

Feb. 19, 2017: 

A 24-year-old Wilmington man was piloting a homemade plane when it crashed in a field near I-70 in Harmony Twp.

Jordan Spier, who had a pilot’s license, was the only occupant of the Macleod homebuilt fixed wing single-engine experimental plane and was pronounced dead at the scene.

He had taken off from his uncle’s private airstrip in the 300 block of Titus Avenue before crashing shortly before 5 p.m.

» MORE: Victim in Clark County plane crash devoted to aviation 

July 22, 2016:

A husband and wife died when their experimental aircraft crashed in a cornfield in Harmony Twp.

Relatives said the couple were flying to Michigan from Georgia when Levon King’s RV-9A aircraft went down as heavy rains and lightning rolled through the area. Authorities said they are still collecting information and it’s not clear what role, if any, weather may have played.

The couple was just seven miles east of Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport when they crashed.

» MORE: Investigators gathering information on fatal Clark County plane crash 

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