N45WT - Cessna U206G hits boat on takeoff, boater killed.

Aviation Aviation News
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
Sea Plane Hits Boat on Takeoff; 1 Dead

The Associated Press

LEEVILLE, La. A sea plane that was trying to take off collided with a small private fishing boat on a bayou Thursday afternoon, killing a man in the boat.

Authorities do not believe the plane, operated by Chevron Corp., became airborne before the wreck. It sank to the bottom of a shallow part of Bayou Lafourche, with part of it remaining above the surface.

Three people in the plane were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Lafourche Parish sheriff’s spokesman Larry Weidel said.

The man who died was believed to be the only person on the 18-foot boat.

Alex Yelland, a Chevron spokesman based in San Ramon, Calif., confirmed that a company-operated plane was involved in the accident. The three people aboard the plane all were Chevron employees, he said.

The area where the crash occurred, about 60 miles south of New Orleans, is laced with crisscrossing navigational canals, Weidel said, but he could not recall similar accidents in recent years. The area is a staging ground for companies serving oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

FAA ](http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=45WT) registered owner - ChevronFAA](http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/preliminary_data/events01/media/01_45WT.txt) preliminary report May 25/07
Cessna U206G](Cessna U206G Stationair 6 - Trail Ridge Air | Aviation Photo #1102549 | Airliners.net) similar aircraft to this photo.

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Was the 206 taking off on a water runway or just any part of the water?

Did the pilot look way down to see if he was gonna hit anything?

Is this the place?

3

According to Airnav, 1LAV is privately owned by Chevron and has an established 5000 ft unlighted water runway. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the pilot was using the runway. The preliminary report seems to indicate that he was on the runway.

4

Floatplanes, like any other, have to take off into the prevailing wind. There really is no such thing as a water “runway” except on very narrow lakes or waterways; otherwise the takeoff area is pretty much in any direction.

I obviously have no information on this particular accident, but can say that boaters have given me a few anxious moments in the past including one rejected take off. They just are often not paying attention. You might expect they could at least hear you coming - a TU206 makes a h*ll of a racket - but then so does an outboard.

I suspect neither the pilot nor the boater saw each other. Before you get up on the step the nose is pointing way up - you’ve got a windshield full of sky and precious little else :open_mouth: