from author and historian Jim Ignasher
Windham, New Hampshire – February 17, 2009
On February 17, 2009, a 47-year-old woman was piloting an ultralight aircraft over Windham when it crashed into an unoccupied home on Harvest Road. The woman had to be extricated form the wreckage by the fire department before being transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Source:
Derry News, “Chester Woman Survives Plane Crash”, February 19, 2009.
Haverhill, Massachusetts – August 10, 1986
On August 10, 1986, a 39-year-old man was working on the 30-horsepower engine of his ultra-light aircraft at Slavit Airport in Haverhill. When he’d finished, he took off on a test flight. As he was piloting the aircraft about 100 feet off the ground, witnesses said the craft suddenly dove towards the ground and crashed, killing the pilot.
Source:
Derry News, “Plane Crash Kills Sandown Man”, August 14, 1986
Tiverton, Rhode Island – July 4, 1994
At 10 a.m. on July 4, 1994, a 42-year-old man took off from the Fall River Airport in a home-built ultralight aircraft and set off for a shoreline flight along Mount Hope Bay towards Rhode Island. Awhile later he turned inland over Horizon Drive in the town of Tiverton. According to a witness, the aircraft was at an altitude of about 350 feet when its engine suddenly stopped. As the plane began to drop the pilot deployed the emergency parachute but it was not enough to slow the plane enough to prevent it from crashing about twenty feet from a home on Horizon Drive. The pilot was killed instantly.
Source: Providence Journal, “Ultralight Plane Crashes In Tiverton; Pilot Killed”, July 5, 1994, page A-1
Woonsocket, Rhode Island – August 19, 1983
On August 19, 1983, and 41-year-old Uxbridge, Massachusetts, man was piloting a one-passenger Ultralight Wizard over Woonsocket when a spark plug wire became disconnected causing the engine to fail. The homemade aircraft went onto a nose dive and crashed in Cold Spring Park next to a chain link fence about thirty feet from the Blackstone River. The pilot was transported to Woonsocket Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The pilot had taken off earlier from behind the Cocke & Kettle restaurant in Uxbridge.
Source: Providence Journal, “Ultralight Pilot Injured In Crash”, August 21, 1983, page C-14
Richmond, Rhode Island – September 6, 1986
At about 4:45 p.m. on September 6, 1986, a 42-year-old man from Coventry, R. I., was flying over Richmond Airport in an ultralight aircraft when the fabric on the left wing ripped as he came out of a dive. The pilot aimed the aircraft towards a wooded area at the edge of the field and released a parachute designed to be deployed in emergencies. Just as he did so more wing fabric tore away and the chute became entangled in the landing gear. The plane crashed through the trees and the pilot was critically injured.
Source:
Providence Journal Bulletin, “Pilot Is Hurt As Ultralight Plummets 1,000 Feet”, unknown date.
Providence Sunday Journal, “Two R. I. Ultralight Crashes Bring Debate Closer To Home”, October 19, 1986, C Section, page 1.
The Sun, (Westerly, R. I.), “Pilot Saw Wing Cloth Tear, Then Knew He Would Crash”, November 23, 1986, page 10.
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