By Livingston Allen, Freelance Writer
Curious onlookers inspect the wreckage of a single engine aircraft which crash landed in an orange field in Wakefield, St. Catherine, yesterday. The pilot, who was the only one aboard, escaped unhurt. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
GINGER RIDGE, St. Catherine:
DAVIAN COLEY, 20, a flight instructor attached to Wings Jamaica Ltd., escaped serious injury yesterday after the Cesna 150 single engine aeroplane he was flying developed engine trouble and had to be crash-landed.
The young flight instructor landed the aircraft in an orange orchard owned and operated by Wakefield Orange Juices on the Springvale main road just outside Linstead, Bog Walk, St. Catherine.
Eyewitness reported that the pilot was shaken up badly after the crash but otherwise unhurt. Two helicopters from the Jamaica Defence Force airwing arrived on the scene and airlifted the pilot to hospital.
A 12-year-old boy, who was among the scores of people to arrive on the scene early, said he saw the plane coming down low. According to him, the pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, called out and was trembling when he got out.
Carl Barnett, Managing Director of the Tinson Pen-based Wings Jamaica Limited, told The Gleaner that he was happy that the pilot was not hurt. However, he pointed out that the aeroplane was extensively damaged. Mr. Barnett also said that the pilot was on his way from Montego Bay to the Tinson Pen Aerodrome when the plane developed engine trouble and the pilot had to force land it. Eyewitnesses praised the skill of the pilot.
When The Gleaner arrived, the plane was being loaded into a truck to be taken to Kingston.
No one on the ground was hurt.
