Derry, New Hampshire – September 21, 1996
On September 21, 1996, a lone 66-year-old pilot took off in a Cessna 180 airplane from a private airstrip at the Hidden Valley Camping Area on Damren Road in Derry. When the aircraft was about 250 feet in the air the engine suddenly quit and the plane crashed into some small trees near the runway coming to rest upside down. Fortunately the pilot wasn’t injured.
As a point of fact, this wasn’t the first time the pilot had survived a plane crash at this airstrip. In 1988 he’d crashed in the same area and suffered a broken back.
Source:
Derry News, “He’s Off, Then Back On Course – Pilot Plays Golf After Plane Crash”, September 25, 1996.