Body Attacked By Alligator After Plane Crash Was Student Pilot At Flight School With Safety Issues
A student pilot who crashed a small plane in the Florida Everglades and was subsequently eaten by an alligator, was attending a school with a history of safety issues, a new report finds.
The flight school owner, Robert Dean, says Mark Ukaere, a student at Dean International Flight School, was on an unauthorized flight alone on Saturday at 8:40 pm. Even so, the new report reveals the school has a higher number of accidents and casualties than its contemporaries.
Five people involved with the school have perished in flying-related accidents since 2007, according to Miami's NBC 6. 29 accidents or incidents have also been recorded in that period of time. Their sourcing comes via documents from the National Transportation and Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration on downed planes at Dean International.
The incidents mostly involved failed pre-flight inspections, engine power loss, fuel exhaustion and unsatisfactory oil fluid levels.
Back in December 2015, the same plane flown in last Saturday’s crash was forced to make an emergency landing on U.S. Highway 41 in Collier County. It’s unclear whether Ukaere was the same pilot in both incidents.
FAA and National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the scene post-accident on Thursday morning and are still investigating what happened.
See a local news package about the incident below.