Highlands Today file photo
The tail section of the light airplane
flown by missionary pilot James Weener
landed among a group of trees beside
Golf Hammock’s 10th fairway.
By GARY PINNELL
Highlands Today
Published: March 6, 2010
SEBRING - After a 16-month
investigation, the
National Transportation Safety Board has
blamed the pilot for the breakup of his plane
over the Golf Hammock golf course.
"The probable cause of this
accident (is) as follows," the March 3 report
said. "The pilot's
exceedance of the design stress limitations
of the airplane."
The pilot, James Weener, 70,
was taking his passenger, James Ricker, 46, on a
thank-you trip for helping the missionary
village in Sebring. Just after noon, more than
100 people on the golf course watched as the
plane came apart in mid-air.
The pilot and passenger, both
from Sebring, fell from several hundred feet
into a clump of trees. Both died.
Witnesses told the
NTSB that the 1946 Ercoupe 415-D entered a
high-speed dive before pulling up and rolling
steeply left. One of the witnesses reported that
both
ailerons were fluttering just before both
wings separated from the fuselage and the
airplane broke up.
Ailerons are hinged flaps attached to the
wing's trailing edge.
The report did not blame the
plane itself, or a modification.
"Examination of the wreckage
revealed that the wing spar failed in overload
at its center," the March 3 report said. "Though
a hole not specified in the design of the
airplane was present at the point where the
separation of the spar began, its effect on the
pre-accident structural strength of the spar
could not be determined. No corrosion or
evidence of a
fatigue failure was observed in the vicinity
of the initial separation."
"The origin of the breakup is
in the vicinity of the hole,"
NTSB investigator Dennis Diaz said. "That's
where it started to come apart." He didn't
determine who drilled the hole. His Nov. 13
factual report states that the factory
drilled two holes into the wing spar - the
I-beam which holds the weight of the wings.
Two holes were drilled by the
factory into the top wing spar, the top of the
wing's I-beam. The Ercoupe 415-D seats two, a
pilot and a passenger, side by side. They sit in
two seats, which are mounted to the seat pan.
The two holes are to fasten the seat pan to the
wing spar.
That single hole could have
caused the crash, local pilot Jon Lowe agreed.
However, he had also heard that the pilot could
have been performing a stunt for his passenger.
Lowe owns an antique aircraft restoration
business at Sebring airport.
Highlands Today
reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at
863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com
