Details Emerge From Icon Crash

In a letter to company employees that Icon president Kirk Hawkins shared with Plane & Pilot, Hawkins that "the NSTB and FAA are undertaking a thorough investigation that includes ICON's participation." This is standard procedure for fatal accidents of light planes.

Hawkins also seemed to suggest that the investigation might be a straightforward one with no major mysteries to solve, writing, "In conjunction with that investigation, I was at the crash site Monday along with Sully, Clint, and the NTSB investigator.In addition to obtaining eye-witness information, we have also retrieved the flight data recorder and engineering has carefully reviewed the data. A very clear picture is emerging." Hawkins did not elaborate on what the data showed but later suggested that the data would show that it was not an aircraft issue that was responsible for the crash.

In the letter Hawkins revealed that immediately after the accident, the company grounded the small fleet of Icon A5 amphibians pending the investigation. But upon learning details of the flight, the email letter implied, Icon returned the fleet to active flight status.

In the email Hawkins also shared another previously unknown fact, that one of the crash victims, Cagri Sever, had been at Icon Aircraft for only a week and that the pilot of the plane, Jon Karkow, was taking Sever on a "personal," familiarization flight of the A5, sharing with him the airplane, Hawkins said, of which Karkow, one of the lead engineers on the project, was rightly proud.