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PILOT HOSPITALIZED AFTER PLANE CRASHES ON RUNWAY

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 26, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has identified a pilot whose plane crashed Thursday at Tampa North Aero Park as Robert Erickson, 68, of 4631 Birdsong Drive.

Erickson's small biplane crashed shortly after takeoff at the private airstrip at 4241 Birdsong Drive.

Erickson's home is one of several that back up to the airport's runway. The airport is bookended by Interstate 75 and County Road 54 in central Pasco County.

Erickson was airlifted for medical care shortly after the noon crash. He remained hospitalized with head injuries, according to sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin.

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

A witness to the crash 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, 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.

"They collapsed like a hinge," he said.

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

"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 had to partially dismantle the plane to retrieve the pilot, who moaned loudly as he was removed from the cockpit.

The Federal Aviation Administration was responding to the scene and is investigating.

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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