In May,
Jon Karkow, Icon's chief test pilot who was responsible for the
plane's design, died in a crash in California. Cagri Sever, a new employee who was in the passenger's seat, also was killed.
The National Transportation Safety Board
concluded that the probable cause of that accident was pilot error. The plane had been flying at Lake Berryessa, a reservoir with coves, canyons and steep rising terrain.
"It is likely that the pilot mistakenly thought the canyon that he entered was a different canyon that led to the larger, open portion of the lake," according to the NTSB's aviation accident report.
Instead, there was no exit from that canyon. "The airplane would have not been able to climb out of the rising terrain that surrounded the area, which led to his failure to maintain clearance from terrain," according to the NTSB report.
In a May statement, Shane Sullivan, Icon's director of flight, said, "We're unsure why the plane flew into such a narrow canyon that had no outlet
."