Pensioner pilot recovers from crash injuries (From The Northern Echo)

Pensioner pilot recovers from crash injuries

8:19am Tuesday 2nd September 2008 in

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A PENSIONER who survived when the light aircraft he was flying crashed at an airfield was yesterday recovering well.

The 73-year-old suffered back injuries after his plane turned on its roof as it approached the landing strip at Fishburn airfield, near Sedgefield, County Durham, on Saturday afternoon.

The co-pilot, also in his 70s, escaped from the two-seater Vans RV light aircraft with only scratches and bruises.

Yesterday the pilot, Bill Knott, was still being treated at hospital in Stockton for relatively minor injuries.

Jim Edgeworth, a pilot who was working at Fishburn yesterday, said: “The passenger called the airfield to say they are both all right and thank everyone who was around for their help. He walked away relatively unhurt straight after the accident.

“But the other guy is still in hospital, not for anything serious, but I understand he has damaged vertebrae.”

The plane had set off from North Weald airfield, Essex, and was due to refuel at Fishburn before carrying on to Inverness, where both men are understood to live.

An Air Accident Investigation Branch inquiry is under way.