Pilot Walks Away After Crash Landing Plane at Intersection in N.J. Town, Cops Say
It was an unusual sight: a private plane crash landed in Robbinsville Sunday evening and came to rest at an intersection near the airport, as if it were waiting for the traffic light.
Police officers arrived to the 5 p.m. call and found the pilot walking around the area, mostly unharmed. He’d put the single-engine Piper down on Sharon Road near Gordon Road, just east of Trenton-Robbinsville Airport, Robbinsville police said.
The pilot — a 47-year-old East Windsor man — sustained only minor injuries and was taken to a hospital for minor back pain, police said.
The pilot had just taken off from the airport, ”when he experienced some sort of mechanical failure while in flight, causing him to perform an emergency landing,” police said.
“Just when you think you have seen it all. Thankfully everyone is safe. Power will be out in the area for a few hours,” Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried posted on Facebook at about 6:30 p.m.
The plane — a 1966 Piper painted with a black and purple camouflage motif, a U.S. Air Force symbol and a shark’s mouth nose — sat near a residential neighborhood, surrounded by homes with a park not far away.
Photos and a video posted on social media showed the plane fairly damaged — the propellor was chewed up and the left wing was smashed.
The investigation was ongoing and police said they notified the Federal Aviation Administration for further investigation.
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Spencer Kent may be reached at [email protected].
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