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Light plane crashes today in Vienna; pilot injured
The Vindicator ( Youngstown)
Photo
ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR Jeffrey Jardine fills out a witness report Saturday evening after his friend's experimental 1990 Pieton Pole Air Camper crashed shortly after takeoff in Vienna Township. The pilot, Ronald Catchpole, 54, of King Graves Road, was taken from the scene in serious condition.
VIENNA
A homemade plane crashed onto a creek bed here soon after it took off from a private air field Saturday, seriously injuring the pilot.
Ronald Catchpole, 54, of King Graves Road, was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center after the crash, shortly before 5 p.m. behind a home at 2260 Pleasant Valley Road, said Lt. Brian Holt of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Catchpole was flying a 1990 Pietenpol Aircamper, a small plane with an open cockpit that owners assemble at home, police and witnesses said. He had just taken off from Price Field, at the top of a hill above the crash site, when he apparently developed engine trouble. He made it to the tree tops along the creek before crashing.
Holt said Catchpole was stable and conscious when he was taken from the crash site.
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