AP CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Authorities in Tennessee have found the body of a man who was thrown from an experimental aircraft while an instructor was teaching him to fly.
Bradley County Interim Fire Chief Troy Spence says search crews located the deceased student pilot at about 11:45 a.m. Saturday. He declined to release the man’s name.
Collegedale Municipal Airport employee Lowell Sterchi told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the man was being trained by an instructor in his Zodiac 601 aircraft on Friday when the canopy came off. The instructor also was not identified.
The man’s seat belt was not fastened and he was thrown out of the plane.
Sterchi said the instructor landed the plane and was not physically hurt. He says the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.