A federal investigation into misuse of a student pilot’s license continues for an Alaska man who waited hours for rescue with two young family members on the wing of plane after he landed on a partially frozen lake, where the aircraft partially sank.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said like all pilots involved in accidents, the pilot in Sunday’s mishap, identified by an official and federal aviation records as John B. Morris Jr., of Kenai, is being investigated. In Morris’ case, he holds a student license which bars him from flying with passengers.
The FAA has a range of disciplinary actions, up to suspending or revoking a student pilot’s license for violations.
The plane, a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser registered to Morris, landed for unknown reasons near the toe of a glacier on Tustumena Lake, on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula on Sunday. The pilot and passengers were rescued the following day after spending a cold night on the wing.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board also announced Thursday it was no longer investigating the incident.
What happened?
Morris and two young family members, described by Alaska State Troopers as of elementary- and middle school-age, flew from the Soldotna airport on a sightseeing tour last Sunday.
In a social media post, John Morris implored people to help search for his son and granddaughters, saying they were late returning from a Sunday afternoon flight.
The plane didn’t have a locator beacon, and the last ping from the pilot’s cell phone put it in Tustumena Lake, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Anchorage.
Terry Godes, one of about a dozen good Samaritan pilots searching for the missing plane, spotted it on Tustumena Lake, and three people on the wing waved at him as he neared them Monday. Officials said the plane didn’t totally sink through the soft ice because cloth covering the wing helped keep it afloat.
The Alaska Army National Guard dispatched a helicopter to rescue the three. They were flown to a nearby hospital with what officials described as non-life-threatening injuries.
The girls were dry, but Morris Jr. got wet in the slowly sinking plane after getting them onto the wing. His phone also got wet and stopped working.
The investigation
The NTSB conducts accident investigations, and the FAA handles enforcement.
Mark Ward, an NTSB investigator, earlier told The Associated Press that Morris Jr. did not report the incident within the required timeframe of 24 hours and did not return phone calls to them. Morris also hasn’t returned several messages this week to the AP.
If the pilot landed on the lake that wasn’t as solidly frozen as he estimated, that’s a different scenario than if a mechanical issued forced them down, Ward said.
The NTSB announced Thursday it was no longer investigating. “We were able to confirm that there was not substantial damage or serious injuries,” meaning it didn’t fall within the agency’s jurisdiction to investigate, spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick said in an email.
The FAA does look at “pilot qualifications and performance as part of every accident investigation,” said spokesperson Ian Gregor, also by email. He later said the agency does not ”comment on any aspect of an open investigation.”
Why is the pilot being looked at?
In 2018, Morris Jr. received his student pilot license with the limitation that he not carry passengers. Ward, the NTSB investigator, said he was told by the FAA that Morris appeared to have a history of violating the prohibition and had made no applications for a regular pilot’s license.
Among other FAA prohibitions for a student pilot include not flying or carrying property for compensation or for hire, flying in furtherance of a business or flying internationally, except for solo training flights from the Alaska communities of Haines, Gustavus or Juneau to Whitehorse, Yukon, returning over the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Student pilots flying passengers is among the more common violations of FAA rules, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Speaking generally, FAA sanctions depend on the circumstances of individual cases. Actions can include counseling and training on the low end to certificate suspensions or revocations on the high end.
