Pilot Walks Away from Fly-in Crash
LOCK HAVEN — A pilot believed to be from Florida was able to walk away from his Cub plane which landed in a small tree behind an E. Main Street home in the lower end of the city Friday afternoon.
The identity of the pilot was not immediately released but the plane was owned by Mark Stewart of Ocala, Florida and an investigator said Stewart had flown the plane to Lock Haven for the 29th annual Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven.
One witness told city officials that the pilot had taken off in a westerly direction, had the plane stall out and restarted it; in the process of turning toward the Susquehanna River the craft, moving at a slow speed, went down in a tree, the pilot able to free himself and walk from the accident scene.
The plane was a Taylor Craft made in Bradford, PA, before the company moved to Lock Haven and became Piper Aircraft Corporation.
The crash occurred during the height of Piper Memorial Airport activity during the annual Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven.
A fly-in official told The Record the airplane was manufactured in 1936, a Taylor J2, the forerunner of the Piper Cub J-3. He said the 78-year-old airplane can be salvaged and rebuilt.
