Small plane crashes into Susquehanna

EATON TWP. – A small single-engine airplane crashed in the Susquehanna River seconds after taking off from the Skyhaven Airport Friday.

Two people, pilot William Earnest and passenger Steven Gay, were in the Piper PA22 aircraft when it crashed shortly after 3 p.m. Neither was seriously injured in the crash, though Gay was transported to Mercy Tyler Hospital, Tunkhannock, for treatment of minor injuries, Tunkhannock Community Ambulance Association Chief Michael Henn said.

Henn said Earnest told him the power cut out in the plane shortly after it left the ground, and that the engine stopped running suddenly. It appears as if the plane hit some trees at the end of the runway, landed nose-first in the water and flipped over, coming to a stop upside down in the river, Henn said.

Henn said both men were wearing seatbelts and were fortunate not to be knocked unconscious in the crash, as the plane’s cockpit filled with water.

The plane landed on the west side of the river in Eaton Township, near Tunkhannock.

Skyhaven Airport is privately owned and is adjacent to the Dymond Trailer Park. It has a single, paved runway that measures 2,007 feet in length by 50 feet in width. Flight operations are processed through the Williamsport Airport, according to aviation.com.

The four-seat airplane was manufactured in 1956, according to FAA registration data. The FAA also reported that the plane’s registered owner as Alderdice Inc., in Meshoppen, though Henn said Earnest told him he had recently purchased the aircraft.

Jim Peters, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration Eastern region said, the FAA sent a representative from its Allentown office to the scene, and an inspector from the FAA traveled by boat to inspect the wreckage shortly before 7 p.m. The investigation into the crash will likely be turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, Peters said.

A command center was set up within minutes of the crash by rescue personnel from Tunkhannock Community Ambulance Association, which includes a dive and rescue unit, Triton Fire Company, Mercy Tyler Hospital Advanced Life Support Unit, Tunkhannock Township Police, the Lake Winola Fire Department and the state Fish and Boat Commission.

Crews from the Tunkhannock Ambulance Association secured the plane to prevent it from floating away before hauling it from the river Friday evening. It was taken to the nearby airport.