July 5, 2006 Pilot Lands On Road, Is Killed Trying To Take Off

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By Mary Grady , Newswriter, Editor

The pilot of a Cessna 180 landed on a residential street in Oklahoma on Sunday, then tried to take off, but clipped power lines and crashed nose-first into a suburban front yard. The pilot was killed and his 11-year-old grandson was critically hurt, The Associated Press reported. The airplane had taken off from a private airport just a few minutes earlier. The pilot may have intended to land at a nearby residential airpark, where the runway is bordered by hangars and homes, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol told the AP. That airport is less than a mile from the road where the pilot landed. But that scenario remains unclear. "Why was he landing here?" NTSB air safety investigator Tim LeBaron said at a news conference on Monday. "That's a good question. I don't know if we are ever going to know."