PLANE CRASHES DURING AEROBATICS; PILOT HURT.Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer MOJAVE -- An aerobatic plane that was used as a chase plane in test pilot Burt Rutan's historic 2004 space flights crashed and caught fire Wednesday outside the grounds of Mojave Airport, seriously injuring its pilot. The pilot, whose name was not immediately released, was pulled from the wreckage by firefighters, who also extinguished the small grass fire the crash started. ``He crashed while he was performing aerobatics aerobatics Sport of performing maneuvers such as rolls, loops, stalls, spins, and dives with an airplane. As an organized sport, rather than as an air show attraction (“stunt flying”), aerobatics began international competition in 1960 under the auspices of the ,'' Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control spokesman Ian Gregor said. The injured pilot was flown by helicopter to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Kern County sheriff's Sgt. Richard Wood For the British politician, see . For the English footballer, see . Richard Wood, nicknamed Batman, (born May 31, 1953 in Elizabeth, NJ) is a retired National Football League linebacker. said. Officials at Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled), formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan. , Rutan's Mojave-based company, had no immediate comment. The single-engine Extra 300 airplane belongs to Chuck Coleman Chuck Coleman (born Charles Colman) is a jazz-pop singer/songwriter. Coleman started piano lessons early in his childhood and began writing and singing in his adolescence. , one of Scaled's design engineers. Scaled said it was used to train Scaled's pilot/astronauts before the SpaceShipOne rocket plane flights, and also flew with the SpaceShipOne rocket plane at the end of its flights to assist the rocket plane pilot in landing. Kern County officials said they did not know why the plane crashed. National Transportation Safety Board officials were called in to investigate. The crash occurred about 1 p.m. Wednesday about 200 yards north of the airport's northern fence, sheriff's officials said. |
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