Crash of Sightseeing Homebuilt Flight Raises Questions

Isabel Goyer

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:09 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

A modified twin-engine Air Cam sightseeing plane crashed off Honduras with a family on board, all surviving, despite an NBC report attributing the incident solely to an engine failure.
The accident aircraft was an amateur-built Air Cam, controversially modified to carry three passengers against manufacturer recommendations due to potential overloading.
The article questions why a twin-engine aircraft, capable of flying on one engine, would crash in light seas due to an engine failure, especially given an eyewitness account of a wing clipping the water.

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The crash of a sightseeing plane just off the coast of Honduras on Jan. 11 that was reported on by NBC’s Today show on Monday raised questions here at Flying that the NBC report did not address.

Andy Atkins, his wife Jenny and four-year-old son Logan, the story reported, were on an air tour of the island of Roatan near Honduras when, the story claims, “disaster struck: The engine cut out and the seaplane crashed into the water.”