The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incidentat the Brookhaven Municipal Airport that damaged a twin-engineplane flown by a Tennessee man.

Ken Leggett of Dyersburg, Tenn., safely landed July 22 afterstriking the tops of some trees during his approach. He submitted areport with the FAA about the incident and said they wereinvestigating it.

Officials with the FAA would not comment on whether aninvestigation was being done.

Mayor Bill Godbold said he had not heard from the federal agencythat oversees air travel, and Leggett said he was told that theagency did not need to interview the mayor after visiting theairport.

Airport Manager Boyce Bullock said he did meet with three menfrom the FAA who visited the airport and interviewed him, but hewas off duty the day the insurance investigators came to thesite.

“I have not heard anything from them,” he said of both groups ofinvestigators. “They asked questions, but they didn’t make manycomments.”

But the fact that the airport remains open means the FAA did notfind the airport at fault, he said.

“If the trees were in the way of incoming traffic, the FAA wouldmake us remove them or shut down the airport,” Bullock said.

According to Leggett, he was flying to Jackson to pick up twoJackson businessmen late in the evening on July 22, but weatherprevented him from landing there. He circled the airport for morethan an hour and was then diverted to Brookhaven.

Weather was also bad here at the time, but not as severe as thatbuffeting Jackson, Leggett said. He began his final approach about9:30 p.m., and wind speed dropped from 98 knots to 75 knots withinseconds. He immediately added power to compensate and began pullingup, but the wind shear made him lose some altitude.

“At that point,” he wrote in his report, “my landing lightsshowed the top of a tree just ahead, which I hit with the rightengine.”

Leggett managed to wrangle the plane back into the air afterstriking the tree and made a successful landing on his secondapproach.

His post-landing inspection revealed damage to the right-sideprop, gear door and flap.

The prop has since been removed for repairs, he said, and duringthe removal they discovered the prop engine was damaged and willalso have to be repaired. He estimated the total damage at between$50,000-60,000.

The plane is still parked at the airport here awaitingrepairs.

“He was lucky,” Bullock said. “It could very well have wiped himout.”

Godbold said the grove of trees Leggett struck are not onairport property, but on private property. Leggett concedes thatpoint.

“I don’t believe they are on airport property,” he said.

Leggett described the grove as being just past the end of therunway and standing amid a trailer park. Leggett said he caught aglimpse of a television antenna high up in one of the trees duringthe frantic seconds of ascending.

“If I had not added power when I did after seeing the wind shearI do not believe I would have made it through the trees,” he wrotein his report. “The tree next to the one I hit had a large TVantenna on it, and I do not know how I missed it.”

The mayor added that the city does have the authority to demandthe trees be cut should they become dangerous to approachingaircraft.

Godbold, however, does not believe the trees in question pose asignificant danger.

“I don’t believe he was in the right approach,” he said.

Bullock agreed.

“He was just too low and too slow,” he said. “I think the treesare more a mental problem than a physical one. They’re distracting,and coming in at night with no familiarity with the airport, theycan scare the hell out of you.”

Removal of the trees is part of an airport improvement programawaiting money to implement, Bullock said. He said it’s not acostly job, but it is tied into other improvement projects.

“That’s all in the future,” he said. “The federal government istight, the state government is tight. Everyone is tight with theirmoney now and we just don’t have it.”

Leggett, who was alone in the plane, has been flying since 1961and logged more than 18,000 hours of flight time without anincident.

He was piloting a Navajo Chieftain plane registered to attorneyCharles Kelly and Darrell Sells. Sells was one of the men he waspicking up in Jackson.