2 men survive air crash

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

By Fran Odyniec
Managing Editor

Two men survived the crash of a single, rear-mounted parachute aircraft Tuesday afternoon in Fairfield Township. The craft crashed onto the lawn of a home located near 9650 Benjamin Pringle Road at 5:21 p.m.

The craft had taken off from an area just north of Benjamin Pringle Road and was in the process of gaining altitude when at approximately between 20 and 30 feet a slight student pilot error caused the craft to bank to the left. After the correction was made, the craft became tangled in a power line and begin spinning to the ground taking down three strands of the 12,000-volt line as it descended.

The student, a man in his 60s, was taken to Grant Medical Center in Columbus for observation while the instructor, Sky Stargell, of Benjamin Pringle Road, walked away from the crash shaken but unharmed.

Stargell, a 37-year-veteran of aviation, said that this was the first crash he had ever experienced.

“The main thing,” he said, “everybody’s OK.”

He recalled that conditions were normal at take-off from his property on Benjamin Pringle Road.

“We added power to climb, but the student pushed a little too far to the left,” he said. “We corrected, but it was too late to abort. We just barely didn’t clear the power line 20 feet up.”

A neighbor who witnessed the crash as she was tending her garden said that the craft hit the power line and started to spin “and came down its side.”

She rushed across Benjamin Pringle Road to assist the downed fliers, noticing that the student, a man in his early 60s, apparently was in shock, but shortly thereafter was responsive.

Ohio Edison reported power outage to 27 customers in the vicinity of the crash, and had a repair crew on the scene within an hour. All 27 customers were expected to have power restored by 9:30 p.m.

Jefferson Township Fire Department’s rescue unit and two units from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s West Jefferson Post responded to the crash.

Fran Odyniec can be reached at (740) 852-1616, ext. 21 or by e-mail at editor@madison-press.com.