Tiny Bubbles
Contributor
Monday, June 27, 2005
Pilot ditches small plane in Lake Huron
FORT GRATIOT -- A Marysville pilot with five passengers on his twin-engine aircraft was forced to ditch into Lake Huron on Sunday after the airplane experienced engine trouble.
The St. Clair County Sheriff's Office reported that there were no serious injuries in the crash landing, which occurred about 1:50 p.m. in the shallow waters about 150 feet east of Gratiot and Keewahdin roads and that pleasure boaters in the area helped those on the aircraft.
"We lost the left engine and then we lost the right engine," said Robert Caldwell, 49, of Cary, N.C., who was one of the passengers. "(The pilot) brought it down and it skipped a couple of times."
The pilot, Robert Evans, 49, owner of Evans Air Corp, was the only one who reported an injury. He suffered a cut to his nose and was treated and released from Port Huron Hospital, the sheriff's office said in a statement. Evans operates charters out of St. Clair County International Airport.
The passengers on the plane were Robert Caldwell; his wife, Linda, 50; and their children, Elisa, 21, and Robert J., 17. They're all from Cary, N.C. Also on board was a family friend, Christopher Wallbank, 20, of Port Huron.
Once the plane hit the water, the six people on board got out and swam, or were helped, to shore, witnesses said.
Caldwell said the group boarded the plane in Killarney, Ontario, on Georgian Bay and was flying to the county airport in St. Clair Township.
Small crowds gathered in back yards along the lake Sunday as boats from the U.S. Coast Guard and the St. Clair County Sheriff Department's marine division kept water traffic away from the crash site. The plane's white-and-burgundy tail was sticking out of the water.
Dan Lapish, 44, of Troy and his 5-year-old daughter were on the beach when the plane came down.
"It was coming in so controlled and so low I assumed it had pontoons on it," Lapish said. In July 2003, Evans made an emergency landing at the St. Clair County airport after landing gear malfunctioned on his twin-propeller Piper Navajo. No one was injured.
Sunday's crash was the second local aviation incident since Friday, when a helicopter carrying four people crashed about 3:20 p.m. into a lawn on St. Johns Drive in Clay Township.
Names of those involved in the crash have not been released but police said three people suffered minor injuries and a fourth was taken to St. John River District Hospital in East China Township. The helicopter is a corporate craft, registered to Act Two Inc. in Southfield, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site. That crash also remains under investigation.
link:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0506/27/0metr-229310.htm
Pilot ditches small plane in Lake Huron
FORT GRATIOT -- A Marysville pilot with five passengers on his twin-engine aircraft was forced to ditch into Lake Huron on Sunday after the airplane experienced engine trouble.
The St. Clair County Sheriff's Office reported that there were no serious injuries in the crash landing, which occurred about 1:50 p.m. in the shallow waters about 150 feet east of Gratiot and Keewahdin roads and that pleasure boaters in the area helped those on the aircraft.
"We lost the left engine and then we lost the right engine," said Robert Caldwell, 49, of Cary, N.C., who was one of the passengers. "(The pilot) brought it down and it skipped a couple of times."
The pilot, Robert Evans, 49, owner of Evans Air Corp, was the only one who reported an injury. He suffered a cut to his nose and was treated and released from Port Huron Hospital, the sheriff's office said in a statement. Evans operates charters out of St. Clair County International Airport.
The passengers on the plane were Robert Caldwell; his wife, Linda, 50; and their children, Elisa, 21, and Robert J., 17. They're all from Cary, N.C. Also on board was a family friend, Christopher Wallbank, 20, of Port Huron.
Once the plane hit the water, the six people on board got out and swam, or were helped, to shore, witnesses said.
Caldwell said the group boarded the plane in Killarney, Ontario, on Georgian Bay and was flying to the county airport in St. Clair Township.
Small crowds gathered in back yards along the lake Sunday as boats from the U.S. Coast Guard and the St. Clair County Sheriff Department's marine division kept water traffic away from the crash site. The plane's white-and-burgundy tail was sticking out of the water.
Dan Lapish, 44, of Troy and his 5-year-old daughter were on the beach when the plane came down.
"It was coming in so controlled and so low I assumed it had pontoons on it," Lapish said. In July 2003, Evans made an emergency landing at the St. Clair County airport after landing gear malfunctioned on his twin-propeller Piper Navajo. No one was injured.
Sunday's crash was the second local aviation incident since Friday, when a helicopter carrying four people crashed about 3:20 p.m. into a lawn on St. Johns Drive in Clay Township.
Names of those involved in the crash have not been released but police said three people suffered minor injuries and a fourth was taken to St. John River District Hospital in East China Township. The helicopter is a corporate craft, registered to Act Two Inc. in Southfield, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site. That crash also remains under investigation.
link:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0506/27/0metr-229310.htm
