According to the latest news from AOPA’s webiste, one prototype Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Cessna’s LSA, crashed 30 miles away from the factory, in Wichita. The pilot ejected himself, and is fine. The flight program included stalls at 10′000 feet, and the aircraft entered a flat spin (oops). The pilot decided to eject when passing 5′000 feet. Click here to read the APOA information. There is an interesting remark, about witnesses reporting bangs, and sparks. Not exactly the kind of thing one expects from a spinning plane…

Loosing an aircraft is never good, particularly during the certification phase Even worse, the in a new category. The attention NTSB is giving to the LSA category will certainly increase, and this is a good thing. LSAs could be the renewal of private aviation, it’s not the time to start having safety doubts.

I don’t have more information that what has been published by AOPA and avWeb, and this is why I initially replayed the information via my Twitter feed, and on StumbleUpon. Then I saw in the traffic stats of this blog that my post “Cessna in China – Good or Evil ?” was skyrocketing again, I guessed that the polemic would restart. Some Cessna clients withdrawn their orders when the decision to buy the Skycatcher in China was announced. By that time, I wrote:

By assembling the SkyCatcher in China, Cessna attemps to maintain an acceptable price for low-budget pilots while keeping high quality and safety. Any accident occuring in the early in the life of an aircraft type has catastrophic impacts. If that would occur with the SkyCatcher the “China” factor will certainly pop-up even before investigators will reach the crash site, so Cessna will have to be really careful about the work done in China.

I googled “cessna skycatcher crash china”, and the second link was leading to a page with comments like:

• Not good. Built overseas. Sounds like an in-flight break-up. Glad the pilot got out.
• Built in China. Sheesh. Can’t even get a good plane anymore.
• Skycather: Made in China.
• Time for an embargo.
• Made in China… red flag!

And this in the middle of various hypotheses trying to explain the bangs and sparks (remember, it was flying at 10′000 feet… but could the bangs and sparkes have occured during the descend ?). In the middle of them, was a single:

• Accidents happen! Honest!

To which I can adhere. The plane is produced in China, yes, but assembled in USA, and the program was about stalls at rather high altitude. Entering a spin is not easy (a flat one even less), and test pilots know what they do. Was that an enhanced “bad hair day”, or is there something wrong with the aircraft ? I’ll keep an eye on the story, and keep you posted… But not before the mediatic and “China factor” argument will be over. This blog is about aviation, not in politics.

UPDATE on 7th of October 2008: More news via AOPA.