Crashes Spotlight Ultralight Aircraft

In the 20 years Will Tennison has flown his 1963 Cessna 172 off the grass strip at Airport Manatee, he has known six pilots who have crashed and died. All were flying ultralight aircraft. … NTSB records for Southwest Florida during the six-week period of the five crashes follows this bureaucratic course. Out of the five, only two had tail numbers and were flown by bona fide trained pilots: the amateur-built Skybolt that plunged into the Gulf of Mexico off Lido Beach on Dec. 19 and an amateur-built Seawind 3000 that crashed into trees on the New College of Florida campus on Jan. 12.