The STOL Twin Bee crash near the Winter Haven airport last week claimed the life of well-known flight instructor James Wagner but his student, Tim Sheehy, and an occupant of the house they crashed into escaped with minor injuries. Local reports are suggesting that the Twin Bee lost an engine soon after takeoff from Winter Haven.
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, publicly credited neighbors who helped him from the wreckage. The occupant of the house, 17-year-old Carmelle Ngalamulume, was in the back bedroom and was pinned by the wreckage briefly. Photos of the crash site show the Twin Bee apparently having contacted a cinder-block exterior wall in a near-vertical attitude. Extensive damage to the cabin is evident, as is the appearance of the left engine’s propeller being in the feathered position.
According to the The Ledger, a Winter Haven neighbor witnessed the crash. Janie Cowper said the Twin Bee was “hovering, rocking back and forth,” and was “unbelievably loud” as it crashed.
Wagner was using the Twin Bee for multi-engine-sea training at the time of the accident. According to Winter Haven Sheriff Grady Judd, “Their goal today was simulated engine failure training. Let me underscore we do not know, at this time, if they were simulating engine failure when they crashed.”
The Twin Bee is a remanufactured version of the Republic SeaBee with twin IO-360 Lycomings replacing the single 215-HP Franklin originally fitted to the SeaBee.
