INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A pilot who died after crashing a small glider plane into a grassy median on State Road 60 last weekend, was identified as 57-year-old Brian Richard Daems, a sheriff’s report shows. The report showed Daems lived in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
A preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration stated the aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances. The FAA listed the event as an accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was investigating the fatal wreck involving the experimental Schleicher ASW24 glider. Investigators with the FAA described the trip as a personal flight activity.
The single-plane crash occurred about 12:40 p.m. on Friday in the 10000 block of State Road 60, northwest of New Hibiscus Airpark Airport and west of Interstate 95. Indian River County sheriff’s deputies said the plane was a single seater aircraft.
A heavily redacted incident report showed that officials with the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.
A man affiliated with the New Hibiscus Airpark Airport said Daems was his best friend and that “accidents happen.”
Most glider planes, or sail planes, don’t have engines. The gliders are usually either aero towed into the sky and released or catapulted into the air using a long cable from a powerful stationary engine during a winch launch.
