Pilot, 73, unhurt in Telford take-off crash
A 73-year-old pilot who ran out of runway while trying to take-off walked away unhurt from his wrecked plane which somersaulted upside down in a Telford field.
It then ran out of runway, and flipped on to its roof – but the pilot was able to escape unhurt.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch report published following the crash, said the 2000-built Cessna Skyhawk – registration G ENNK – is probably damaged beyond economic repair.
The four-seater aircraft, owned by Pooler-LMT Ltd of Lower Grounds Farm, in Shirlowe, was piloted by a man with 8,000 hours of flying experience.
The report said 1,000 of those hours were in the type of aircraft piloted that day and the pensioner was attempting to take off from the 318-metre long runway.
The report said: "He realised that the aircraft was not accelerating quickly enough to reach flying speed as the ground was too soft.
"He abandoned the take-off and the aircraft ran off the end of the runway and into a soft, cultivated field where it flipped inverted. The pilot was uninjured and evacuated the aircraft unaided.
"He stated that he regularly operated from Shirlowe airstrip and had calculated that runway 15 gave a 40 per cent margin for soft ground based on the performance figures for a short-field take-off." On the day of the crash, emergency services were sent to the scene at about 7am where they found the pilot had made his way out the aircraft.
Fire crews from Market Drayton, Shrewsbury, Tweedale and Wellington were sent to the field where there was a small fuel spillage.
Police and the ambulance service were also at the scene and an air ambulance was also seen circling the field. Craig Jackson, watch manager at Wellington fire station, said the pilot had a lucky escape.
