ISU sells ex-president’s plane to alum for $450,000
AMES — Iowa State University has sold its former president’s airplane for $48,000 less than it spent to buy the four-seater in 2014.
The university said Tuesday that it sold the Cirrus that former President Steven Leath often piloted for official and personal business for $450,000.
ISU previously said it used donations to obtain the airplane for an “exceptional price” of $498,000 in 2014. Leath pledged to sell the aircraft last December after a Board of Regents audit questioned dozens of flights he took for training.
He had already stopped piloting himself following revelations that he had damaged the plane’s wings in a hard landing in 2015 while returning from vacation.