2 men hospitalized following plane crash at Longmont’s Vance Brand Municipal Airport

Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)

Feb. 16--Two men were taken to area hospitals on Friday afternoon after a small plane crashed while landing and then flipped onto its top at Vance Brand Municipal Airport in Longmont.

Longmont Police Deputy Chief Jeff Satur said that the crash was reported at about 1:30 p.m. and one of the men was able to pull himself from airplane, but rescuers had to lift up the plane to remove the second man.

Satur said the older of the two men was taken to UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the more seriously injured of the two was taken other to Longmont United Hospital. Airport Manager David Slayter identified the pilot as the more seriously injured of the two.

Slayter said the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, and the plane has since been removed from the scene and will be stored in a secure location as the federal authorities investigate.

He said that the pilot was practicing landings and for unknown reasons the plane went off the runway and flipped over.

A group of police, fire crews and airport officials had gathered around the small airplane, which sustained damage to its top. Police were seen wrapping crime scene tape around the plane before it was removed later in the day.

The plane did not catch fire, according to the Longmont Fire Department.

The aircraft, a Scheineman-Van Buren T-18, is registered to Mark D. Russell, of Denver, according to the FAA. It is described as a single-engine, fixed-wing airplane.

Steve Lowe, a friend of the pilot, said his friend had just bought the plane from Russell and was conducting a "check ride" for insurance purposes. He did not identify his friend by name but said he was undergoing surgery on Friday afternoon and is an experienced pilot.

Lowe added that he did not know the other person in the plane.

Friday's incident marks the second time in slightly more than a month that a small plane has gone down at the airport. On Jan. 13, a single-engine aircraft lost power shortly after take off and crashed in a grassy area west of the runway. A preliminary NTSB report stated that one of the two people on the plane suffered serious injuries in the crash.

John Bear 303-473-1355, [email protected] or twitter.com/johnbearwithme

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