It's too early to tell if this will be the end of Icon, but I'd say it is likely. I'm in aviation insurance and know that the underwriters were already skeptical about their business model of teaching rich thrill seekers to fly and sell them their planes. Now 3 of about 20 airframes are wrecked with the chief test pilot among the fatalities. Sure it was deemed pilot error, but if the test pilot crashed in one, what is a rich guy with the bare minimum hours going to do in one? Well, now we know unfortunately.
So if these things airframes become un-insurable, then it's t&*ts up for Icon. If insurers decide to require 500-1000 hours, well, at the Icon price point, a 2000ish Cessna 206 on floats can be had, so what's the point?
And this isn't even mentioning the litigation for this crash. It might not be a mechanical issue, but certainly if I'm the widow (who didn't want my husband to buy one in the first place) I'm angling for that, PLUS Icon's push to put novice pilots into their cockpits. Icon will have to defend both fronts. Which circles back to Icon's own products liability insurer, who will be paying for the defense and eventualy settlement. If Icon company itself loses it's own insurance after this litigation, then buh bye.