The Icon A5 is probably one of the most hyped aircraft of recent years – a stylish, amphibious Light Sport Aircraft carrying over US$85 million in investment over the last 10 years or so.
It uses the ubiquitous Rotax 912ULS (100hp) engine in a 2-seat pusher configuration and sports a highly designed automotive style cabin. All in all, it appears to be a beautiful and unusual aircraft – although at US$389,000, there will be a limited number of people who have enough pennies to buy one.
The only problem is that out of a total of 22 delivered aircraft (so far), three have crashed, killing three people, including a couple of senior employees of the Icon company.
Here is a link to a YouTube video which, I think, fairly and in an unemotional way describes the aircraft and the three accidents very well. It also makes some suggestions as to what may be the factors which have contributed to this extraordinarily high accident rate in what is probably one of the most tested new aircraft on the planet.
Click on the photo above or here for the video: Icon A5 accidents
Like the people said, it seems that one of the problems was the marketing. If they market to people who want a jetski with wings, then they will get buyers who will use it as a jetski with wings. They will expect some groundrush. It’s a bit tough to say to the buyers, “Forget what we said. If you fly close to the ground, you will die. And the only thing more dangerous than flying close to the ground is flying close to the water”.