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A South Carolina airport has taken the drastic step of banning all aircraft under 600 pounds. Flying the restricted aircraft will be considered a misdemeanor and violating aviators may face a fine of up to $500 and/or imprisonment.
After two aircraft incidents in a year and a half, the town council approved an ordinance banning ultralights at the Holly Hill Airport (5J5). The ordinance was introduced in a council meeting on Aug. 28, proposing to restrict aircraft weighing under 254 pounds with passenger-carrying capabilities at the airport. In the Sept. 11 meeting, the ordinance was read a second time with a minor change and then approved. According to The Times and Democrat, the text was changed to restrict any aircraft less than 600 pounds. This ordinance was amended before being passed to include heavier ultralight aircraft like gliders.
WLTX News 19 reported that Holly Hill EAA Chapter President David Chandler recently purchased a lightweight aircraft before the ordinance and can no longer operate it at the airport.
"The issues and the accidents that happen with these light aircraft, they're not the airplane's fault," Chandler said to WLTX. "The airplane is not the issue. They're not breaking up, they're not falling apart, it's the pilot who's making a poor decision to go fly outside of its limitations."
There were two accidents at the airport in under two years involving ultralight aircraft. On Feb. 24, 2022 an ultralight aircraft veered to the left during takeoff, colliding with a hangar and trees. The crash substantially damaged the aircraft and hangar and the pilot was seriously injured. The NTSB investigators noted in its report that neither the pilot nor the owner of the hangar where the plane was stored responded and the wreckage could not be examined. The NTSB listed the probable cause as a loss of control during takeoff which resulted in a collision with the hangar and trees.
A witness saw the crash occur and pulled the spark plugs out of the engine to shut the plane down for fear of fire, shocking himself in the process. The witness, local pilot Ronald Connolly, told WIS 10 he had been flying out of the airport for 11 years and had never seen anything like it. Holly Hill Police Chief Joshua Detter told WIS 10 the pilot was in critical condition, noting that it was unusual for incidents like that to happen at the airport.
"This doesn't usually happen in Holly Hill," Detter said to WIS 10. "It's more of a hobby airport, it's not manned so there's not a whole lot of flying that goes on."
A second accident occurred on Aug. 9 when an experimental ultralight crashed into a hangar, damaging the building and plane. The NTSB is conducting a Class 4 investigation, which is primarily conducted remotely and has the shortest duration of investigations, with a probable cause and final report within six months. The two accidents both hit hangars and both damaged the building and the involved aircraft substantially. Neither resulted in a fatality but the town opted to ban ultralight aircraft from the airport as a safety measure. The ordinance is limiting a small percentage of aircraft, but a percentage of aircraft that are frequently flown at hobby airports like Holly Hill.