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2 Hurt In Crash Landing

Sarasota Herald-Tribune photo by ROD MILLINGTON

The pilot and passenger in a 1965 single-engine plane were injured after it crashed at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on Wednesday. Witnesses think the engine quit after takeoff.

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By ROGER DROUIN, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

Updated: 12/27/2007 12:14 am

SARASOTA - Charles Long was having lunch in his truck Wednesday near a runway at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport when he heard a loud sputtering sound coming from a small airplane overhead.

"It didn't sound right," Long said, adding that he thinks the engine in the 1965 single-engine Mooney airplane quit when the plane was about 200 feet in the air.

Long said he saw the pilot turn the plane back toward the airport, where it had just taken off. The plane began to descend quickly toward the runway.

"He came out of the sky, caught his wingtip and then the plane tumbled over," Long said.

The pilot and one passenger were aboard the aircraft during the crash at about 1 p.m. One suffered a head injury and the other a back injury, said Frederick "Rick" Piccolo, the airport's chief. He declined to identify them, citing possible confidentiality laws. Both were taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital.

The airplane had full fuel tanks, Piccolo said. The visible damage included a crumpled left wing, bent propeller and damaged landing gear.

The airport closed one major runway while workers cleared debris from the area. That runway opened again at about 2:45 p.m.

The closed runway meant delays of more than an hour for large commercial jets, Piccolo said. Smaller planes could use an alternative runway and were not delayed, he said.

The Mooney is registered to Georgia-based Rime Development LLC, a computer service company, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site. A message left at the phone number listed was not returned.

The aircraft had just left the runway and was headed northeast when the engine started to sputter, witnesses said.

As the engine quit, the pilot turned toward another runway, away from busy Tamiami Trail and several homes.

Phil Scarpasi, a pilot who has flown small airplanes for 10 years, walked to the crash site from a nearby hangar after hearing the noise.

"I think he did the right thing and put it down in the airport," Scarpasi said of the pilot. "He did the best he could in the amount of time he had."

Pilots of small airplanes spend hours training for emergency situations like this one, Scarpasi said. But even with all the training, the pilot only has seconds to make his decisions.

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