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Spoiler:
Local pilot dies in crash of plane he built himself
By Robert Kelly and Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Jun. 01 2008
ST. CHARLES COUNTY – The pilot of a light airplane was killed Sunday when the
plane, which he had built himself, crashed in a farm field while he was making
a test flight before taking a friend on a flight.
The pilot was alone in the plane. Authorities identified him as David E. Lucas,
52, of Chesterfield, an 18-year veteran of the Creve Coeur Fire Department as a
firefighter, emergency medical technician and ladder truck driver.
Sgt. Kevin Jett of the St. Charles County sheriff’s office said the pilot had
taken off from Creve Coeur Airport late Sunday morning and crashed shortly
after 11 a.m. The crash site was about 1,000 feet off Greens Bottom Road, near
Katy Trail State Park and the Missouri River in the Harvester area of St.
Charles County.
No distress signal was sent from the two-seat Acrosport II biplane before it
plunged to the ground, Jett said.
“Witnesses saw the plane just go straight down, really hard,” Jett said. He
said he was unsure what caused the plane to crash but that weather conditions
were good at the time and that the plane might have experienced a mechanical
failure.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal
Aviation Administration were on the scene late Sunday.
Lucas had kept the plane at Creve Coeur Airport and often flew it on weekends.
Ron Dillard, one of three other pilots who co-own Lucas’ plane, said Lucas took
off Sunday morning for a short loop around the airport to make sure it was
flying properly before giving a friend a ride.
Lucas spent 12 years building the plane and won an award from the Experimental
Aircraft Association in 2006 during an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., Dillard said.
The plane was capable of performing aerobatics and Lucas had been training to
fly aerobatic routines, he said. Dillard said Lucas would do aerobatics only at
higher altitudes and only outside of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport’s
airspace.
“He was not a hot dog,” said Dillard, 64, of Ballwin. “You won’t find anyone
else in the world that was so meticulous.”
Lucas was a 1974 graduate of Lindbergh High School and earned an engineering
degree from Washington University. He also studied at the University of
Missouri-Rolla and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Creve Coeur Deputy Fire Chief Arthur Oestereich recalled Lucas as an avid
outdoorsman, a passionate pilot and a dedicated firefighter. “He was a bright
fellow who was in the job for the right reasons, and that was to help people,”
Oestereich said. “He was always trying to make things better for everybody.”
Gene Kidd, a pilot from Sunset Hills, and his wife, Evelyn, knew Lucas and said
he had been careful in maintaining the plane. Kidd said Lucas had flown the
plane for two years and that he knew of no mechanical problems with the plane.
“They babied that plane and took such good care of it,” Evelyn Kidd said. “This
is very sad.”
Gene Kidd said it was not unusual for experienced private pilots to build their
own light airplanes. Some light planes, often called ultralights, are built
from kits. But Kidd said Lucas had used specific plans for his plane and made
his own airplane parts, not relying on the parts that would be provided in a
kit.
By Robert Kelly and Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Jun. 01 2008
ST. CHARLES COUNTY – The pilot of a light airplane was killed Sunday when the
plane, which he had built himself, crashed in a farm field while he was making
a test flight before taking a friend on a flight.
The pilot was alone in the plane. Authorities identified him as David E. Lucas,
52, of Chesterfield, an 18-year veteran of the Creve Coeur Fire Department as a
firefighter, emergency medical technician and ladder truck driver.
Sgt. Kevin Jett of the St. Charles County sheriff’s office said the pilot had
taken off from Creve Coeur Airport late Sunday morning and crashed shortly
after 11 a.m. The crash site was about 1,000 feet off Greens Bottom Road, near
Katy Trail State Park and the Missouri River in the Harvester area of St.
Charles County.
No distress signal was sent from the two-seat Acrosport II biplane before it
plunged to the ground, Jett said.
“Witnesses saw the plane just go straight down, really hard,” Jett said. He
said he was unsure what caused the plane to crash but that weather conditions
were good at the time and that the plane might have experienced a mechanical
failure.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal
Aviation Administration were on the scene late Sunday.
Lucas had kept the plane at Creve Coeur Airport and often flew it on weekends.
Ron Dillard, one of three other pilots who co-own Lucas’ plane, said Lucas took
off Sunday morning for a short loop around the airport to make sure it was
flying properly before giving a friend a ride.
Lucas spent 12 years building the plane and won an award from the Experimental
Aircraft Association in 2006 during an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., Dillard said.
The plane was capable of performing aerobatics and Lucas had been training to
fly aerobatic routines, he said. Dillard said Lucas would do aerobatics only at
higher altitudes and only outside of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport’s
airspace.
“He was not a hot dog,” said Dillard, 64, of Ballwin. “You won’t find anyone
else in the world that was so meticulous.”
Lucas was a 1974 graduate of Lindbergh High School and earned an engineering
degree from Washington University. He also studied at the University of
Missouri-Rolla and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Creve Coeur Deputy Fire Chief Arthur Oestereich recalled Lucas as an avid
outdoorsman, a passionate pilot and a dedicated firefighter. “He was a bright
fellow who was in the job for the right reasons, and that was to help people,”
Oestereich said. “He was always trying to make things better for everybody.”
Gene Kidd, a pilot from Sunset Hills, and his wife, Evelyn, knew Lucas and said
he had been careful in maintaining the plane. Kidd said Lucas had flown the
plane for two years and that he knew of no mechanical problems with the plane.
“They babied that plane and took such good care of it,” Evelyn Kidd said. “This
is very sad.”
Gene Kidd said it was not unusual for experienced private pilots to build their
own light airplanes. Some light planes, often called ultralights, are built
from kits. But Kidd said Lucas had used specific plans for his plane and made
his own airplane parts, not relying on the parts that would be provided in a
kit.
