Larry,
Great points! Good observation....too bad the seller had to hide that from you - I consider that unethical if he knew but selected not to inform you.
Having never dealt with a "crashed plane" like that, it would be interesting to see what folks think of purchasing such an aircraft IF the plane was rebuilt and certified to fly again...
I know nothing about getting general aviation planes with major damage back into "airworthy" condition, but assume the owner would have to go through major hoops with the FAA to get the plane recertified?
As long as the buyer KNEW the plane had damage, and the damage was fully rectified, would there be any other reason to refrain from purchasing such a plane given the price was right?
Having flown some previously "banged up" USAF planes, I don't think I'd have a problem buying the right plane at the right price if it was truly repaired.
Thoughts? Anyone with any experience good or bad out there?
Thanks - MM
Mike,
I feel like the seller, an aircraft dealer/broker, was being less than candid but I could be wrong. Maybe he didn't know the whole history of the plane. Maybe he looked into the log books until he found the damaged wing issue and stopped there. But from the accident/incident report I found thanks to this wonderful website, the firewall damage and possible other damage would have been nearby in the logs since they all came from the same incident.
It was one of those "aircraft was substantially damaged" notations in the NTSB accident report. The good news, I guess, was that the accident was in 1996 and presumably the airplane was made whole again and has been flying for 12+ years. Another possibility is that it was just put back together after a long fallow period.
