Two Killed in Icon A5 Crash

"I don't get to add my opinion when I write for AVweb, so my editors cut my last paragraph as excessively editorial in nature, but here's how that article would have ended:

"This crash is the second hull loss for the A5 in the last two months. In both cases, the sole occupants were ICON employees. Although the light-sport amphibian has been reported to have docile handling and be nearly impossible to spin, due in large part to Karkow’s work, ICON has taken heat for what some perceive as promotion of dangerous flying. ICON’s aggressive CEO and founder, Kirk Hawkins, is a former F-16 pilot and has staffed the company with disproportionately large numbers of retired fighter and attack aircraft pilots. When Flying Magazine awarded the A5 an editors’ choice award in 2015, the staff noted 'Icon has also worked hard to cultivate a bad-boy image with the release of videos and promotional materials that show A5 pilots performing the sorts of aggressive low-level maneuvers that have been getting people hurt or killed in airplanes for more than a hundred years.'"

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Flying is just exactly as safe as you want it to be. Skill isn't a material factor in flight safety. Karkow was a legend. Test pilot. Engineer. Soft spoken bad ass. I went up and introduced myself to him at a conference last month, because he was a hero to me and I wanted to shake his hand. On Monday, his aeronautical decision making skills got left behind, and he flew into a box canyon at 40 feet. If you passed your private pilot checkride, you have all the ADM skills you need, but you have to elect to use them."