Single Engine Plane Crashes at Lafayette Municipal Airport

By Debbie Gregory

On Sunday afternoon, July 7, a single engine, experimental Super Drifter Float Plane crashed at the Lafayette Municipal Airport shortly after 3 p.m. 

There were two people in the plane, including the owner and pilot Roger Richardson and passenger, Chris Nickens, both of Hendersonville, Tennessee.

According to Richard Thomas, who operates Sky Chaser Aviation at the Lafayette Airport, the pilot was doing touch and go landings and a gust of wind caught the plane. “This flipped the plane over and it hit the asphalt hard,” said Thomas. “Richardson was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Nickens was taken by ambulance to Sumner Regional Medical Center. When I called Vanderbilt this morning, Richardson was listed in critical condition.”   

According to EMA Director and Assistant Fire Chief Don Stevens, they were called out there at 3:05 p.m., and the Super Drifter airplane had crashed approximately 25 feet from the fuel tanks. “We were on the scene until almost 5:00 p.m., and since there wasn’t a fatality the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who is over the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigations, said we could move the plane out of the way.”

Those responding to the scene were the Macon County EMS, Macon County Sheriff’s Office, Lafayette Police Department and the Lafayette Fire Department.