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But perhaps just as painful is the fact the aborted takeoff resulted in a crash that has left his plane with substantial damage, and he with more than a bruised ego. “He was a little shaken up,” Hurkett resident Jim White said of the pilot. “I imagine he‘ll be pretty stiff and sore (Friday) morning.” According to Nipigon OPP, officers were notified just before 4 p.m. Thursday that a single-engine Grumman America aircraft had made an unscheduled landing on a gravel road near Hurkett. Various sources said the 25-year-old pilot, who was travelling alone, was experiencing engine problems. He landed without incident on Squaw Valley Road, then apparently tried to take off. But he hit a patch of ice and went into a ditch. White, the first bystander on the scene, said the plane‘s front wheel was broken off. As well, there appears to be damage to the landing gear, the leading edge of the wings as well as the nose cone. “It hit (the ditch) pretty good,” White said. He helped the pilot get the plane out of the ditch and it‘s now sitting on his property. Following an investigation, provincial police charged the pilot under Section187 of the Highway Traffic Act with unlawfully taking off. An emergency landing is legal, but the law requires several things before an aircraft can attempt to get back into the air, a Nipigon OPP official said. One is that a second, commercially-licensed, pilot must make checks to determine the craft is airworthy. Secondly, police must be notified to set up traffic control so the takeoff can take place safely. “None of those things were done,” Nipigon Const. Greg Mosa said Friday. The pilot has a Feb. 25 date in Nipigon court to answer this charge. If convicted, he faces a maximum fine of $10,000. As for the pilot, he was picked up by friends late Thursday and is now staying in Thunder Bay. Mosa said the plane is registered in Winnipeg, where the pilot is attending flight training school. The matter has also been reported to Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The hamlet of Hurkett is located off Highway 11/17, about 80 kilometres east of Thunder Bay. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:49 am |