Accident Overview
On June 14, 2010, at 1245 mountain daylight time, an Air Creation GTE weight-shift light sport aircraft (LSA), registration N227EH, collided with residential telephone and power lines shortly after departing from a local school yard in Springville, Utah. The pilot, who did not hold a pilot certificate or medical certificate, was killed in the accident. The aircraft, operating under experimental category provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, sustained substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.
Pilot Information
The pilot, age 59, lacked a pilot certificate. According to the pilot's son, the pilot had flown hang gliders in the 1970s but had never operated a motorized hang glider before. The son further stated that the pilot had not received any instruction in the accident aircraft and that this was his first flight in it. The pilot had purchased the aircraft on March 19, 2010.
Aircraft Information
The tandem-seat Air Creation GTE, serial number GTE503601, was manufactured in 2004. It was powered by a Rotax 503 50-horsepower engine and equipped with a Powerfin 3-bladed propeller. Maintenance logbook records indicated an annual inspection was completed on May 8, 2009, and the airframe total time was then 130 hours. The pilot's son believed the aircraft had accumulated 186 total airframe hours by the time of the accident.
Sequence of Events
Witnesses observed the aircraft, which resembled a powered hang glider, accelerate across an open school yard and become airborne. Immediately after liftoff, it impacted telephone and power lines that ran along the road at the end of the school yard. An amateur video recording of the accident, provided to investigators by the Federal Aviation Administration, showed the red-and-white motorized hang glider accelerating across a baseball field, becoming airborne, and striking the cables approximately two seconds later. The aircraft rotated violently around the lines and came to rest on the street below. The engine was heard operating continuously up to the moment of impact. The power lines were estimated to be about 35 feet above the ground.
Post-Accident Examination
An autopsy was performed on the pilot on June 15, 2010, by the State of Utah Medical Examiner. The autopsy documented multiple blunt force injuries, and the cause of death was determined to be the result of blunt force injuries to the head and torso. Forensic toxicology performed by the FAA Bioaeronautical Sciences Research Laboratory detected no ethanol in urine. Several drugs were identified in specimens: 0.578 ug/ml 7-amino-clonazepam in liver, 7-amino-clonazepam in urine, 10.77 ug/ml acetaminophen in urine, 1.893 ug/ml codeine in urine, 0.144 ug/ml dihydrocodeine in urine, 0.326 ug/ml hydrocodone in urine, 0.325 ug/ml hydromorphone in urine, and 3.198 ug/ml morphine in urine.