Pilot walks away from plane crash

Second crash at Miry Run Country Club in three years.

By: Rob Heyman
   WASHINGTON — A Pennsylvania man escaped serious injury after a small, experimental plane he was piloting crashed at the Miry Run Country Club on April 14 during takeoff maneuvers at the nearby Trenton-Robbinsville Airport on Sharon Road.
   Detective Ian Hatch of the Washington Township Police Department said the pilot, Tom McCaa of Levittown, was between 400 and 500 feet in the air when the plane began experiencing mechanical problems. It’s engine lost power and the plane crashed near the 17th hole of the golf course at about 5:30 p.m.
   Although there were people playing golf in the vicinity of the 17th hole at the time, no one on the ground was injured. Mr. McCaa managed to free himself from the plane, which came to rest upside down, and walk away from the craft with only a cut to his head. He was treated at the scene, Detective Hatch said.
   Although Mr. McCaa was seen talking to police and emergency personnel at the scene, The Messenger-Press was unable to obtain an interview with him before its Tuesday deadline.
   Detective Hatch described the plane as a "2002, single-passenger mini-max," a sort of homemade plane that can be assembled. Heidi Matisa, a manager of the Miry Run Country Club, said the plane was removed from the golf course at about 8 p.m. that night by "taking it apart." The Trenton-Robbinsville airport is owned by the country club.
   "I can’t believe he managed to crawl out of (the wreckage) alive," Ms. Matisa said. "He is very fortunate."
   This isn’t the first time a small plane has crashed at the country club.
   In June 2000, a single-engine 1966 Piper Warrior 2 carrying three junior ROTC passengers on an orientation introduction run hit a tree in the same area on the golf course. The occupants of that crash were not hurt and walked away from the plane.
   Mark Straszewski, manager of the airport, which borders the country club on the south and west side, said that although the airport is used primarily by larger-sized "production" aircraft, it doesn’t turn away pilots with homemade, or hobby, planes.
   "We didn’t anticipate that this would happen," Ms. Matisa said, adding that the McCaa was flying in accordance with state and Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.
   "It’s just unfortunate it did," she said. Ms. Matisa said that once the plane’s engines had failed the wind had taken it directly toward the golf course.
   Ms. Matisa said Mr. McCaa is a member of EAA, a membership organization of sport aviation enthusiasts.
   Responding to the crash were the Washington Township Police Department, the FAA, the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Washington Township Fire Department.
   Ms. Matisa said Mr. McCaa was not cited by FAA for any violations at the scene and said she didn’t expect that he would.