August 14, 2008 07:47 pm
—
An airplane has crashed in an east side neighborhood near 900 Indiana St. in a vacant lot.
A Tennessee man who was piloting the plane has been confirmed dead.
Tennessee authorities are trying to locate next of kin, police said. They determined the man was alone in the single-engine plane that has 500 hours of flight time logged on it, police said.
Deputy Police Chief Johnny Teehee identified it as an RV-6, a two-seater plane made from a kit.
Witness Walter Kirk said he was sitting in his house when he heard a sound like an airplane trying to rev its engine. He began walking toward his front door, but all he saw was a blur, coming from the west. He heard the crash, which shook the entire house, he said and then saw a flash of light.
When Kirk approached to smoldering plane, it appeared to be stuck into the ground.
Emergency calls began coming in at around 1:27 p.m.
Kay Anderson, co-owner of Davis Field Aviation, said they had not heard anything about the crash until phone calls from people in the city began coming in. There had not been any radio traffic, she said.
Usually, when a plane nears Davis Field, the pilot will radio to let them know they are flying in, Anderson said.
According to the manufacturer’s Web site vansaircraft.com, the RV-6 is the best-selling kit aircraft.
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Photos
Muskogee police examine the scene of an airplane crash on the east side of Muskogee.
Residents watch as officials work the scene of an afternoon airplane crash that killed a Tennessee pilot
The jumbled remains of a single-engine kit airplane sit in a vacant lot on the east side of Muskogee.
Witness Walter Kirk describes hearing the airplane revving its engine shortly before it crashed near his east side home.
Evidence markers pepper the vacant lot that was the scene of a fatal crash involving a single-engine airplane and its Tennessee pilot on Monday afternoon.