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Two Passengers Walk Away After Plane Crashes In Lake Istokpoga

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: August 3, 2008

SEBRING - A flight instructor and a student took a plunge into Lake Istokpoga late Saturday morning after the student forgot to retract the plane's landing gear, causing the plane's nose to dive into the lake.

The two passengers left the plane unhurt. The plane was left undamaged after it sunk in the northern part of the lake west of Istokpoga Park, according to a Highlands County Sheriff's Office report read by Sgt. Mitch Moore.

According the report, Rick Kazbin of Stuart was practicing "touch-and-go" landings using a Drifter ultralight airplane over the lake with flight instructor Jeffrey Alan Hudson of Lockwood Aviation in Sebring.

Kazbin made an attempt at approximately 11 a.m. Saturday when the plane met a lot of resistance caused by the landing gears, causing the nose to go under. After crashing, the drenched pilots left the plane, walked to U.S. 98 and hitched a ride to Sebring Regional Airport. They later directed officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to their abandoned plane and told them and the Federal Aviation Administration that the plane would be recovered Sunday.

The sheriff's office found out about the accident at 5 p.m. Saturday, when a boater in Istokpoga spotted the sunken plane and called the police. Not seeing any passengers, the sheriff's office was preparing for a "search and recovery" mission before they found out that the pilots left the scene with little more than a water-logged cell phone on Hudson's part, the report stated.

A call to Hudson's home phone was not immediately returned Sunday.

The investigation of the crash has been turned over to the FAA.

The plane crashed near the same location as another plane several years ago that was never recovered from the lake.

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