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twitterPilot dies after ultralight goes down near Boulder City
Witnesses say ultralight plane crashed into dry lake bed during failed turn
Mona Shield Payne/Special to the Sun
Wreckage of a single-pilot, ultralight plane lies on a dry lake bed off U.S. 95 after crashing Thursday morning in the Eldorado Valley near Boulder City. The pilot died in the crash.
Published Thursday, July 16, 2009 | 11:45 a.m.
Updated Thursday, July 16, 2009 | 1:14 p.m.
Plane crash
The pilot of a one-seat, ultralight aircraft died this morning after the plane crashed into a dry lake bed near Boulder City, 35 miles southeast of Las Vegas.
Boulder City dispatchers received a call reporting the crash at 7:39 a.m., according to Boulder City police.
Police and fire paramedics found the pilot, a man between 45 and 50 years old, and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Witnesses told police the aircraft attempted to make a turn as it was about 50 feet off the ground. It never recovered from the turn and crashed, nose first, into the dry lake bed.
The Clark County Coroner's Office has not released the name of the pilot.
The Federal Aviation Administration isn't investigating the crash because the ultralight plane was unregistered, spokesman Ian Gregor said from the FAA's Los Angeles office.
Those operating unregistered ultralights do not need a pilot's license, he said.
Planes are considered ultra-light if they weigh less than 254 pounds and carry five gallons of fuel at maximum. Such craft can only be flown from dawn to dusk and cannot fly over populated areas, Gregor said.
"We don't investigate those crashes," Gregor said of the one near Boulder City.
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Can you really be a "pilot" if you are flying a homemade plane? More like a "Thrill seeker dies after homemade flying device inevitably crashes".
What was the density altitude? Did this thing have carb heat? The Sun should ban these before they ban snakes.
Comment removed by staff.
I guess GOING BUST finds his death amusing.
reagan21-
You should be ashamed of yourself. This was no mere "thrill seeker". He has probably logged over 300 hours on that plane. To discredit him as a pilot and assume that he was bound to crash is extremely ignorant.
This man was extremely intelligent, kind and willing to impart of himself to others.
While it's true that what goes up must come down, it's not your place to try to bring him lower after he has passed.
@reagan21 If I could find you right now, I'd gut you like the slime you are. That man was my FATHER. He was no thrill seeker, and although the plane was unregistered it's certainly a well-built plane within regulations. He used to fly gliders and had many hours of experience both with gliders and ultra-lights. He was an enthusiast, cautious and brilliant, not some idiot tossing about in a poorly-made contraption. This happened to be his first solo flight on the new plane, something he'd been looking forward to for some time.
Perhaps you should refrain from passing judgment on those you don't know. Being pretentious never helped anyone. My father was a brave, intelligent, kind, and giving man. He had much ahead of him, and now leaves me and my family with a void that can't ever be filled. So maybe, just maybe, you should think twice before you open your mouth.
Also, he was 57 years old and had been in relatively good health. I get to go down to the coroner's office tomorrow to find out what the final determined cause of death is. For Christ's sake, I didn't even find out what had happened until half an hour before noon. But, of course, the media got there long before I did. It's amazing how many people flock to the site of a grisly crash. I'm in pain, and I'm also ashamed for those around me who treat this either impartially or with incredible disrespect. Come on and show me a bit of reason not to lose hope in humanity completely.
One last thing, that plane had been flown before, including a test flight by the previous owner right before the sale was made, so it's not like this was some stupid experiment by a cavalier amateur. He had flown for many hours on ultra-lights, and I am in such shock that this happened. I miss him terribly.
By wordsmith451
Sorry your Dad killed himself, but that comment you initially made is the worse comment I have ever read in one of these columns, and probably against the law.
Wordsmith451 - I am very sorry for you loss. I hope you can find some comfort in knowing that your father was living his dream, following his passion, and probably loving life, as we all are supposed to do, as he took his final flight. He had to have been very happy. I hope you can ignore the ignorance of the world when they do not know when to keep their mouths closed. Please remember there are those who are compassionate, caring and understand your grief (and a reaction to grief which explains your first comment). Although the media rushes to these scenes to inform the public, their goal is truly to inform versus to exploit. Again, I am sincerely sorry for your loss.
God's blessings to you and your family.
I do think the Sun was a bit exploitive with their photographs of the accident. There is nothing wrong with reporting, per se, but for people who knew the deceased (myself included), the pictures are a bit too much. I know on the nightly news, if it bleeds, it leads, but this is a newspaper renowned for its journalism, not a tabloid. Some restraint with the photos would have been helpful for us.
The tendency of some "human" beings to find something humorous and/or joyful in someone's misery is truly sad and demonstrative of the kind of barbaric and amoral world that we live in today. Every day, all of us take chances in Las Vegas whether we walk, bike, or drive to work. And, there are alot more "Thrill Seekers" who take drugs, drive with ATVs in the desert, sleep with questionable people, and break the law that hurt many more around them. Give the deceased man a break! My sympathies to his family.
wordsmith451, your father was a kind man who lived a rich life. He touched a lot of students, including me. These internet tough guys who leave ignorant and anonymous comments obviously never knew him, which is their loss.
I thank those of you who have offered support. It means a lot to me. That watch in the photo, if you're wondering, is the new watch I gave him for Father's Day. It still told the time after the crash.
To the one who said it was simply his final mistake - we all take risks, and there's quite simply no way to eliminate risk, however assiduously you avoid it. One must always pursue their dreams, and that's exactly what he was doing. I commend him for that, and I couldn't think of a more noble way to pass on. I just wish that he could have had more time to write his book and travel the world. He had a rich life, indeed, and he deserved many more years of it. I wish there were a way to show him how much I miss him, but of course wishful thinking is pointless. He has influenced me to a greater degree than words can describe. It's difficult to even parse the emotion. I swear he will live on through me, and I will make sure his memory is not a wasted one.
Why are some complaining about the photos of the wreckage? TV news stations and newspapers have always published images and/or video of crashes. This is nothing new.
Having 1000's of hours in aircraft from military to small experimental as well as having worked for Molt Taylor (aerocar).I have a few comments that may shed some light on the crash. Ruling out a heart attack or stroke, leaves two possible causes, mechanical failure or pilot error. Just because the plane had been flown before doesn't mean it was airworthy or built correctly. Aircraft can also be over stressed during flight and produce cracks in critical components which could cause failure in the future. people that build their own planes usually have an intimate knowledge of how the plane went together and know what to look for during preflight. This pilot bought his aircraft and probable didn't know it that well.
That being said, the probable cause was pilot error, Since nobody saw anything collasping or falling off the the plane, the only other report was turning 50 feet above the ground. Altitute is a pilots best friend and any manuever close to the ground with low airspeed greatly inhances a chance for a stall to occur. I'm guessing that this plane needed 35-50 mph airspeed to fly and if its flying into a 50 mph headwind, it would be going 50 mph thru the air but not going forward as to the ground.If the pilot looked down at the ground and decided that he wasn't going anywhere and turned the plane to go with the wind, he would then have a 50 mph tailwind and would need to be going 100mph airspeed to maintain his altitute. until the plane reached that airsped, it will not fly and will basically fall from the sky. doing ths at 1000 feet will allow the plane to get up to speed while losing altitute.
Doesn't anyone in journalism think before printing pictures of air and car crashes? Don't they realize the lasting impact crash pictures have on families? Fifty years ago the Sun printed pictures of another plane crash which still haunt the children of the pilot. Please, display a little more compassion for the families who are left behind to pick up the pieces of a loved one gone too soon.
1. I said "pilot" because he was flying a non-plane...something necessary to be called a pilot. That would be like calling a person in a box with four wheels on the freeway a "driver".
2. I stand by everything I said. I am sorry Vesko if you think I was being insensitive. However, when did this country turned into a land of utopian watchdogs. People die. People take risks. Sometimes people die during those risky moments. What makes someone's death so sacred? Why are we so scared to talk about the good and the bad after someone passes? The wise choices and those not so wise?
When MJ died, people kept telling me to focus on the positive of his life. Why? When someone dies they should remember the person...in good and in bad. I hope when I die my children tell stories of fun times at Disneyland and baseball games and other times when I fly off the handle because they throw my stuff out of our second story window onto the street. We do not live on a cloud with rainbows, leprochans, and kitty kat dreams. We are all great some times and asses the other times. That's the world we live in. I am a tad more cynical than others, but that's me.
3. Your Dad chose to fly an unlicensed homemade device. There was a substantial certainty that it was going to come down at some point. I have the right to point that out. You call it enthusiast I call it seeker. I am sad you lost your father, but don't take out his risky behavior on me.
@ls1 - Everything's been independently investigated, and there's still no determination on what went wrong. The funny thing is that I speak from a point of intimate knowledge in what happened, and a few of you presume to know the entire situation and chalk it up to some moron flying in a faulty contraption.
@reagan21: Your logic is unbelievably childish. Once again, you know little to nothing of the circumstances. Don't worry, you win. I have no energy with which to throw myself into your brick wall of stupidity.
@Thumper: Just shut up.
Comment removed by staff.
I took one of his classes last semester. I was very sad to find out about this, he was a really nice guy and a great teacher.
Dr. Stitt was an amazing man with a magnetic personality. I am so shocked to learn about his death. My sister and I are twins that took his summer term class on mythology that ended the month of July. It is so hard to believe how transitive life is. I can still remember his mannerisms, how he stroked his beard in meditation, and heartily laughed at timeless tales of immortals, heroism, frailty and mortality, and the tone of his speech when he was deep in thought and on a roll about Norse mythology, constantly aware of his students ability to lose track. He was a diligent professor and never seemed to take anything in life for granted.
All I can hope is that he found his way to a Norse heaven (his favorite mythology) to create his own world of fire and ice. I appreciated every moment of his classes and my grades reflected it- my sister and I both had straight A's in the two classes we took with him. I never felt I expressed my appreciation enough and remember hesitating the day of the final because I wanted to convey it to him. He was busy with other appreciative students and I lost the moment. Dr. Stitt truly was one of the most passionate and devoted professors I have had and I will never forget him. He had so much more to give, to his family foremost, his students, and to his great passion, folklore. He was an adventurer who always regailed his students with stories of his travels. He urged us to visit the deteriorating monuments of old in Europe, the temples of ancient Greece. He greatly inspired me to make sure I do just that.
Thank you Dr. Stitt, for all you taught us about ancient myths, the value of adventure and passion, forbearance and devotion. I have so much to thank you for- most of all the knowledge you imparted and that I know so many other students must feel as I do, so sad that you are no longer with us. But, I know you have found your way to the afterlife of your choosing where the adventure, of the mind, body and spirit, never ends.