Twelve days before it fatally crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, an Icon A5 flew under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge south of Tampa. The pilot was Roy Halladay III, Hall of Fame pitcher and amateur pilot, turning the 10-minute commute home to Odessa, Fla., from Tampa into a 22-minute joyride with his wife, Brandy, in the passenger seat.
The Skyway clears the water by only 180 feet; FAA regulations require pilots to stay 500 feet away from “any person, vessel, vehicle or structure.” Halladay seems to have found the trick exhilarating: He noted it in his logbook and a few days later tweeted, “I keep telling my dad flying the Icon A5 low over the water is like flying a fighter jet!