20040314003229I

(-23) On March 14, 2004 Dr. James cool was acting as pilot in command of N65675, a lake amphibious airplane on the pend oreille river near Cusick, Washington. Dr. Cool stated he had been practicing "touch and goes" on the river when he damaged the aircraft. When interviewed Dr. Cool stated he may have landed a little sideways. This resulted in damage to the left wing sponson, however, he was able to move the aircraft to the shore before it sank. Search and rescue personnel from pend oreille county removed the sponson from the aircraft to prevent the wing from going under water. A post accident investigation completed by the spokane FSDO revealed substantial damage to the sponson attachment and left wing of the aircraft. FAA records also revealed that Dr. Cool does not possess sea plane privileges on his private pilot certificate and his class iii airmans medical was expired at the time of the accident. (-23 amendment) note: this situation has changed to an incident from an accident. The aircraft has been taken to a shop where an in depth assessment of the damage can be taken. The damage this inspector saw that made it an ac cident was preexisting and did not occur during this incident. The shop determined that the skin wrinkles are old and were probably left over from a previous incident where the leading edge has in fact been replaced and a spar butt repaired with a doubler. Actual damage to this aircraft during this incident includes bent sponson attach brackets, skin damage, and damage to the sponson. This does not fit the parameters for substantial damage so this accident is being reduced to an incident.