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High winds flip 3 planes parked at Naples airport
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Just over a year ago Carsten Sturm, owner and president of Naples-based Europe-American Aviation, purchased a fleet of new Diamond Star single-engine airplanes for his business.
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Storm flips over planes
Planes are flipped at Naples Municipal Airport after a heavy storm Monday, Sept. 17, 2007.
The purchase gave EAA customers the opportunity to rent or train in one of 13 sleek, white planes.
“Make that 12,” Sturm said Monday night. “We used to have 13.”
Around 5:55 p.m. Monday a sudden burst of wind flipped three single-engine planes, including one of Sturm’s, that were parked outside of a hangar at Naples Municipal Airport. The wind also blew a large metal door, nearly 25 feet high, off the hangar and across the runway, Naples airport spokeswoman AnneElena Foster said.
“It remarkably hit nothing,” Foster said of the door. “It basically just sort of rolled.”
No one was injured in the wind burst and no fuel was spilled, airport officials said, but the three planes are probably toast. The structural integrity of an airplane is too important to let most badly damaged aircraft fly again, Foster said.
Sturm said the manufacturer and EAA’s insurance company will have to take a look at the plane, but added “from what I’ve seen that plane is totaled.”
The Diamond DA40 FP cost about $250,000 and weighed about 1,700 pounds when it was empty, he said.
“With the planes, the point is the wind generates lift on those,” Sturm said. “They’re made to fly. ... Once they get lift on the wings and they’re not tied down, even big planes can start to fly.”
Sturm’s 12 other planes, which were at a different spot on the runway, were not damaged by the burst of wind. Losing one plane will not hinder Sturm’s business, he said.
“That just happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time,” Sturm said.
Around 7 p.m., with lighting crackling in the background, airport officials began flipping the three planes over using a crane. The tails of the planes were tied to the crane, which lifted them up. The noses of the planes were tied to a truck, which pulled them forward and righted them.


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