A twin-engine plane crashed at the Honors Course in Ooltewah on the Fourth of July. But almost no one knew about it or would discuss it afterward.
There was no news coverage.
Photos and video taken by passersby show the plane with one wing in the water. It appears the wing is crumpled and the pontoons are bent under the fuselage. The plane was apparently quickly removed from the site.
Those living in the Savannah Bay area say the plane is owned by EMJ Corporation official James H. "Jay" Jolley and that he flies it often around the bay.
Mr. Jolley did not return a phone call.
Flight records show the Aircam that Mr. Jolley bought in 2013 and took 21 months to build from a kit took off at the Collegedale Airport and first landed in the water near Chester Frost Park.
It then flies toward the prestigious Honors Course, where it went down just at the edge of the water.
Collegedale Airport officials said they knew nothing of the crash.
Staff members at the Honors Course were mum.
Several days later, Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board said, "We are aware of this event. It’s not clear yet whether there is substantial damage to the airplane. If there is, it will be classified as an accident and we will open an investigation."
Mr. Knudson said such incidents need to be reported to the agency if there is "substantial" damage to the plane or "substantial" injury to the occupants.
No preliminary report on a crash at the Honors Course has yet been filed by the NTSB.
A Savannah Bay resident said, "I have personally seen this aircraft fly dangerously low, and land in heavily populated areas of Harrison Bay and Savannah Bay. Just in the past few months, this aircraft did multiple touch and goes on Savannah Bay while many paddle boarders, swimmers, and boaters were forced to part ways of the craft. I certainly am not an aviation expert and possibly this pilot has the legal grounds to fly in this way, but it is dangerous none the less."