§ 247. Examination of wrecked aircraft before destruction or removal.
When an aircraft falls or lands in a wrecked condition or is wrecked by
the fall or in landing and an occupant thereof is killed or severely
injured thereby or escapes death or injury by the use of a parachute,
neither such aircraft nor any part of it shall be destroyed or removed
before the expiration of twenty-four hours thereafter without the
permission of an inspector of the federal aviation agency or an
investigator of the civil aeronautics board or a member of the state
police or of a sheriff or regular deputy sheriff; and if, before it is
destroyed or removed, such an inspector or member of the state police or
sheriff or deputy sheriff shall appear at the scene of the wreck for the
purpose of examining the aircraft it shall not be destroyed or removed
until the examination is completed provided the examination be completed
within forty-eight hours of the time that the aircraft fell or landed.
This section shall not prevent or postpone the destruction or removal of
a wrecked aircraft lying in a public street or highway in a position
that causes a blockade of traffic, or lying in a navigable waterway in a
position that impedes or imperils navigation, or which lands or falls on
a building or structure, or in a case where the immediate destruction or
removal of the aircraft is necessary to prevent injury to persons; but
such necessity in the case last mentioned, shall be a matter of defense
in any prosecution for a violation of this section. A person who
destroys or removes, or causes to be destroyed or removed, a wrecked
aircraft in violation of the provisions of this section is guilty of a
misdemeanor.