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Davis Islands Crash Injures 2

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By KEITH MORELLI and VALERIE KALFRIN

kmorelli@tampatrib.com vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: November 29, 2008

TAMPA - A local plastic surgeon and a 19-year-old man were injured when a single-engine sport plane crashed while landing at Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands on Friday morning.

Pilot Dan Greenwald, 48, and passenger Mitch Kirby, 19, both of Tampa, were taken to Tampa General Hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Tampa Fire Rescue.

Greenwald took off from the airport about 10:30 a.m. in an Extra 300 single-engine airplane, authorities said.

The aircraft, heading southwest, came in over the Port of Tampa about 11:14 a.m., clipped a 50-foot sailboat mast, hit the edge of the Seddon Channel sea wall and flipped over, landing on airport property about 50 feet shy of the runway, Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said.

He said the plane struck the mast of the Windseeker about 10 feet down. No one aboard the boat was hurt.

Wade said that had the plane hit the sea wall a foot lower, the men likely would have died.

"It was a really strange experience," said Ed Allen, who was sailing the Windseeker south in the channel to the Davis Island Yacht Club when the plane struck the mast.

Allen said he often sees planes fly overhead when passing the airport, but "they're normally a couple hundred feet higher."

Another pilot, Matthew Dean, 34, of Tampa, and his passenger, Rick Darlow, 60, of Dallas, said they lifted the plane by the wing to help the passenger escape.

"He crashed right in front of us," Dean said. "As he's landing, we look up and see smoke and debris going everywhere. We just shut everything off and ran."

Mitch Kirby's father, Hyde, said his son was lucky only to have a broken leg, a broken foot and some cuts.

"Talk about having Thanksgiving yesterday," he said.

Hyde Kirby said his son, a sophomore at Princeton University, expressed surprise sailboats are allowed close to the airport.

Along the 6-foot chain-link fence, people gathered to look at the overturned experimental stunt plane.

Beth and Marcel Gutierrez live on Davis Islands and shook their heads as he peered at the wreckage with binoculars. They wouldn't mind seeing the airport go away, said Marcel Gutierrez, a former pilot who used to fly out of Peter O. Knight.

"It's grown up too much around here," he said. "Too many residences."

Beth Gutierrez said there are a lot of distractions for pilots flying into and out of the airport. "Passing boats and ships can be a distraction," she said, noting that some cruise ships and freighters often are several stories high and pass close to one runway.

A records search shows the fixed-single-wing aircraft is registered to Tampa Aircraft Holdings Inc., 910 S. Newport Ave.

Tribune editor Howard Altman and News Channel 8 photojournalist Paul Lamison contributed to this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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