Stunt pilot cited in Nevada plane crash believed dead in
China crash Stunt pilot David Glen Riggs, whose Federal Aviation Administration license was revoked after his partner and a passenger were killed in a Boulder City crash last year, is missing and believed dead after his plane crashed this week while practicing for an air show in China. A woman translator who was onboard the home-built, single-engine Lancair 320 also died in the crash, which happened Tuesday outside Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, according to China's Xinhua News Agency. Riggs had been flying the high-performance Lancair plane over a lake. The plane was transported to China as a kit and assembled at a local airport, the news agency reported. It said rescuers were still searching for Riggs while an investigation into the crash was underway. Riggs' civilian airmen certificates had been revoked twice by the FAA. The first time was for a year after he buzzed a crowded Santa Monica, Calif., pier in 2008. The second time was in November for illegally selling rides to the public in a Czech-built L-39 trainer jet, a charge that stemmed from the fatal May 18, 2012, crash in the desert near Boulder City of another L-39 that killed a veteran pilot and his passenger. Authorities determined that Riggs had been flying next to the second plane before it crashed. FAA investigators found that Riggs and the pilot who was killed, Douglas Edward Gilliss, had sold several rides to people at Boulder City Municipal Airport in violation of FAA regulations. After the Boulder City crash, the FAA took an emergency action to revoke Riggs' commercial pilot certificate and any other FAA-issued pilot certificates. Two weeks before the 2012 crash, Riggs had met with FAA safety inspectors in Van Nuys, Calif., and assured them he wouldn't take passengers on flights for compensation. Despite the assurance, FAA investigators found that Riggs did take passengers on three flights for money from the Boulder City Airport and had a fourth lined up when the crash occurred. |
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