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Pilot of small plane injured in crash in Vienna
By jeanne starmack
VIENNA
A homemade plane crashed onto a creek bed here soon after it took off from a private airfield Saturday, seriously injuring the pilot.
Vienna plane crash
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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 treetops along the creek before crashing.
“The trees definitely broke his fall,” said Holt.
He said Catchpole was stable and conscious when he was taken from the crash site.
The OSHP said he was still stable late Saturday.
Jeffrey Jardine of Smith Stewart Road, a friend of Catchpole’s who also is a pilot, said he saw Catchpole try to take off and he could see he was having trouble.
Then, he said, he saw the plane disappear into the trees. Jardine, who lives near the airfield, ran to his car and drove down Pleasant Valley Road to look for Catchpole.
He met up with Bob Bennett, who was doing yard work at his home at 2243 Pleasant Valley when he heard the crash.
“I heard an engine sputtering, then I heard a crashing noise and a thud,” Bennett said.
The two men ran down to the crash site at the back of the property.
They found Catchpole sitting in the creek with water up to his waist and bleeding from his head. They got him out of the water.
Catchpole appeared to be having some trouble breathing, Jardine said. He was disoriented, added Bennett, who is a doctor.
The two men tended to him until paramedics arrived.
“He kept saying, ‘It’s a nightmare, it’s gotta be a nightmare,’” said Jardine.
“We were both amazed he was alive when we saw the wreckage,” Bennett said.
“I was scared to death walking up there,” said Jardine.
Jardine said Catchpole is an experienced pilot who had the plane for two years. He had been flying it all summer with no problems, Jardine said.
Thirteen gallons of fuel leaked into the creek, Holt said. The leak was contained.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the crash, the OSHP said.