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Re: CAF Wildcat: this is what the Chronicle said
Posted by Tulio on Sun Oct 19, 2003 12:22:13 AM
In reply top Re: CAF Wildcat posted by Ryan Harris on Sat Oct 18, 2003 09:45:06 PM
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State
Oct. 18, 2003, 8:56PM
Single-engine plane crashes near Clear Lake
By PEGGY O'HARE and ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
The pilot of a vintage airplane was killed when his single-engine craft crashed in a field near Old Galveston Road and Clear Lake City Boulevard Saturday evening when the man was practicing a flight maneuver, authorities said.
Houston Aviation Department spokesman Ernie DeSoto said at the time the plane that crashed, about 6 p.m., it was not participating in the Wings Over Houston Air Show that was held earlier in the day at Ellington Field.
Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy said the pilot, described as a 55-year-old white male, was affiliated with Wings over Houston.
Dowdy said the victim appears to be a resident of the East Coast who flew to Houston for the air show, which ended more than two hours before the crash. Dowdy also said the pilot had participated in the Air Show Saturday.
The plane is an F4F Wildcat, a World War II-era, vintage-type plane, Dowdy said. He said there are only a handful of the planes in the United States.
After the air show, the pilot was practicing maneuvers when his plane crashed for an unknown reason, authorities said.
Dowdy said the plane landed upright, but the wings were sheared off.
"It (the plane) dug in; it hit hard; it's barely recognizable," Dowdy said of the craft.
Witnesses were watching the man's plane from a distance and saw it drop out of the sky, Dowdy said.
Federal aviation officials and the Ellington Airport Fire Department were on the scene.
Such crashes are investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aeronautics Administration.