Posted on 09/04/2003 6:31:36 AM PDT by xp38
BUCKHORN -- An American pilot who landed his plane on a busy highway near Peterborough yesterday didn't know he was in Canada, a witness said. "I saw the plane coming down as I was driving around the corner, so I just stopped," said 18-year-old Ryan Madill, who was driving a truck on Peterborough County Rd. 36 at 11 a.m. when a single-engine Cessna sliced through a telephone pole and crashed into a ditch.
"After I went and opened the door of the airplane (and) he said, 'Where am I? Am I in the U.S?' "
EVERYONE LUCKY
Although the telephone pole smashed into Madill's windshield and another truck, driven by 79-year-old Ed Sheney of Bobcaygeon, swerved into the woods beside the highway to avoid hitting the plane, nobody was seriously hurt in the accident, OPP said.
"Everyone was fortunate. It's amazing," OPP Sgt. Gord Magee said at the scene. "All we got was a smashed windshield and a truck that ended up in the rhubarb."
While Magee said he couldn't release the pilot's name, a search using the aircraft's registration number revealed the plane belongs to Harold Hawley, who lives in Barker, N.Y., near Buffalo.
Peterborough Regional Health Centre confirmed that Hawley, 52, had been admitted to emergency and was later taken to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
Hawley told police he believed he was over Pennsylvania when his 27-year-old plane ran out of fuel.
He said he had left from an airport in Rhode Island at 6:30 a.m. and was headed to Akron, N.Y..
"Somewhere, somehow, like Bugs Bunny, he missed a turn at Albuquerque," OPP spokesman Const. Bob LaFreniere said. "He certainly flew off his path."
A spokesman for Hydro One said power was knocked out for about 1,260 customers when the plane hit the hydro pole. It was restored within a few hours.
Transport Canada is investigating.
"We'll see if there were safety deficiencies with the plane or if there was pilot error," said agency spokesman Julie Iannetta.
I would have thought the pilot would have noticed the lake ontario thingie was on the LEFT side of his plane, not the right. But then again, I have heard some other wild stories about pilots getting lost.
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Name : HAWLEY, HAROLD PAUL
Pilot's Address : 2739 DRUM RD MIDDLEPORT, NY, 14105-9776
FAA Region : Eastern
Date of Medical : Oct, 2002
Class of Medical : 3
Expiration : Oct, 2004
Pilot Certificates : Private Pilot Airplane Single Engine Land : Mechanic Airframe Powerplant
Status : In Deep Solid Animal Waste...
Aircraft Serial Number : 17267671
Aircraft Manufacturer : CESSNA Model : 172N
Engine Manufacturer : LYCOMING Model : 0-320 SERIES
Aircraft Year : 1976
Owner Name : HAWLEY HAROLD F
Owner Address : 8438 W SOMERSET RD BARKER, NY, 14012-9620
Type of Owner : Individual
Registration Date : 14-Mar-1985
Airworthiness Certificate Type : Standard
Approved Operations : Normal
Sorry, never mind. Somebody got there first.
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