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7iriirriil� Plalze Overltirned in Clover Field
Instructor and Student
Suffer Minor Hurts
A student pilot and Instructor
miraculously escaped serious In-
jury or worse Wednesday evening
when their low -winged Fairchild
PTA trainer clashed in a clover
field on the Adam Galt farm six
miles west of Ithaca.
Tom Bowe of Albany, the In-
structor, crawled from the front
cockpit of the overturned and
smashed plane, pulled back the
loosened fabric and released Don-
ald Coacher, the student. Bowe
sustained a slight cut on the fore-
head; Coacher came out of the
crash .with a black eye_
For Coacher, whose home Is in .
Millburn,. N. J., It was -a fourth ac-
cident in which he escaped without
-
serious injury. He was the only
one of four In the Ithaca Flying
Service Inc. Stinson unmarked
when the big red cabin plane made
a forced landing at Canandaigua
a few weeks ago. He has twice
been in planes that looped and
overturned. "
Plane Apparently Skidded
According to information
ob-tained
at the Ithaca Municipal Air-
port, Bowe and Concher were prac-
ticing simulated landings in a final
check flight before the student
tried for his Instructor's rating.
The plane In "shooting" the field
apparently skidded at low altitude
and then failed to respond prompt-
ly as the throttle was opened.
When it failed to come out of
the skid It dropped from a height
of 30 to 40 feet, striking the soft
ground from which It rebounded to
land on the nose and overturn
i some 60 feet from the point where
It first struck. Both outer wing
sections were shorn off, the fuse-
lage broken and twisted, the pro-
peller splintered, tail section
smashed, and the plane a complete
washout except for the motor. The
left wheel of the plane was found
500 feet from the wreckage.
Plane Completely Smashed
IL M. Peters, president of the
Ithaca Flying Service Inc., owner
of the plane used for training sec-
ondary students, said he had never
seen a plane so completely
smashed. The PTA trainer was be-
lieved to be the last in civilian use,
all other Fairchilds of this type
having been requisitioned by the
Army.
An older version of this same
plane was flying near at the time
'
,.i
of the crash, about 6:45 p.m., -and
hastened to the airport with word
of the accident. Galt said he saw
.16 ;l
the plane settlin, into the tree -
enclosed clover field and ran to
4
the scene abut when he arrived
Bowe was already out of the plane
l
and helping Coneber.
The occupants were taken to --1Se-
morlal Hospital and examined but
released after the extent of their
inor hurts was determined. This
orning Concber was at the air-
rt, taking his written examine -
on for a commercial license and
instructor ratln�.
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