[information Aviation]

Sheriff’s deputy Tim Eason was getting gas Thursday afternoon at the Manatee County jail when he noticed the small plane flying overhead.It made a few loops over Airport Manatee while Eason stood chatting with jail employee Ron Gardner, then disappeared.
“He noticed the plane didn’t come back up so I thought I’d head over to the field to see if it landed,” said Eason, a member of the sheriff’s agricultural crimes unit.








Then he saw black smoke.
After wading through muddy terrain and high grass about a half-mile from the airport, he discovered the wreckage of an ultralight aircraft.
The blue-and-white 2002 Challenger crashed at 2:20 p.m. just outside a wooded area near a tomato field southwest of the airport.
The pilot, 52-year-old Karl Keith, of Kathleen, was killed instantly, sheriff’s officials said.
Randy Warren, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said Keith was test-flying the plane because he was considering buying it from the owner, who is from Tampa and kept the craft at Airport Manatee.
Warren said the owner of the plane asked not to be identified.
“He’s obviously shaken and still dealing with the trauma of the incident,” Warren said.
Warren said Keith was a U.S. Navy veteran and had flying experience.
Sheriff’s officials said the plane might have experienced “wind shear” or lost power before taking a dive and hitting the ground.
The crash sparked an explosion, Warren said.
Eason said the smoke led him to the wreckage.
“I drove through the rows of tomatoes toward it as far as I could,” he said.
Eventually, due to the muddy terrain, he was forced to get out and walk on foot.
“The sheriff’s helicopter got there and walked me into it,” he said. “It was on fire, the wing, everything.”
He instantly noticed Keith was dead.
“It will be hard to get out of my mind,” Eason said.
The smell of ash filled the air as sheriff’s investigators shuttled in and out of the crash scene on a four-wheeler.
It took about 10 minutes for North River Fire Department and Port Manatee Volunteer Fire Volunteer Department firefighters to get to the site because of the mud.
The ultralight took out two rows of tomato vines planted in a field about a half-mile from the Airport Manatee runway. The wreckage of the plane completely charred a small palm tree. Green tomatoes littered one of the overturned wings.
Less than an hour after the crash, a small, yellow single-engine plane practiced a few rounds of takeoffs and landings at the nearby airport runway.
According to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Web site, ultralights are one-seat, lightweight aircraft with small engines and fuel capacity.
Warren said pilots do not need a license to fly the craft.
A Federal Aviation Administration official visited the site Thursday to determine if the aircraft met ultralight specifications. If so, the sheriff’s department will complete the investigation.
“Ultralights are not aircraft,” FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. “We consider them to be vehicles. The FAA will turn the investigation over the local authorities if it is determined to be an ultralight.”
Airport Manatee is seven miles northeast of Palmetto, near the Manatee-Hillsborough county line.



Published: Friday, Jan. 15, 2010