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Small Aircraft Crashes In Pasco; Pilot Injured

Tribune photo by KEVIN WIATROWSKI

A small airplane has crashed on the runway at Tampa Aero North Park, a flight training facility in Pasco County.

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

Updated: 09/25/2008 06:13 pm

WESLEY CHAPEL - A witness to the crash of a small private plane today at Tampa North Aero Park said the plane's wings appeared to fold up as it gained altitude.

Factory worker Randy Dozier saw the crash as he stood outside Rochester Electro-Medical Inc., a medical device manufacturer whose plant backs up to the Tampa North Aero Park's runway.

Dozier said the plane was about 100 feet above the runway when the left wings appeared to fold up, Dozier said.

"They collapsed like a hinge," he said.

The blue-and-white biplane crashed just before noon today on the runway at the private airstrip at 4241 Birdsong Blvd., off County Road 54.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office identified the pilot as Robert Erickson, 68, of 4631 Birdsong Drive.
Deputies said Erickson had head injuries and was taken to a hospital. The sheriff's office received the call about the crash at 12:05 p.m.

"At the time of the transport, he was conscious and alert and transported by Bayflite to a Tampa area hospital," sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin says in a written statement.

Erickson is a licensed as a commercial pilot, helicopter pilot, hot-air balloon pilot and experimental aircraft builder

Dozier said the small biplane took off slowly from the end of the runway closest to Interstate 75. As the plane taxied past him, Dozier could see the pilot in the rear seat of the open-cockpit plane.

"Everything looked smooth," Dozier said.

A few moments later the wings collapsed, causing the plane to roll over and hit the runway upside-down, Dozier said.

"It happened in the blink of an eye," he said.

Rescue workers were forced to partially dismantle the plane to retrieve the pilot, who moaned loudly as he was removed from the cockpit.

The Federal Aviation Administration is responding to the scene and will investigate.

In 2004, a private plane crashed shortly after taking off from the north end of Tampa North Aero Park. That crash killed the pilot, Joseph Rendzio.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowsk@tampatrib.com.

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