A small tow plane burst into flames after crashing during takeoff at Saratoga County Airport on Tuesday, fatally injuring its pilot and triggering a chain reaction—including a car crash involving a county emergency vehicle racing to the scene.
The accident was reported at around 1:45 p.m. when a Piper PA-25 aircraft went down while towing a Schleicher ASW-27 glider at the upstate New York airport, according to a statement released by the Federal Aviation Administration (
FAA). The glider was released from the tow line and landed safely at the airport. Only the pilot was aboard the Piper at the time of the crash.
The Piper PA-25 was owned by the
Adirondack Soaring Association, a club near the airport that offers glider flights to the public. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the crash, with the NTSB taking the lead.
A spokesperson for the club did not immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours on Wednesday.
The plane crash set off an unintended chain of events on the ground. Just minutes after the accident was reported, a county emergency vehicle rushing to the airport was involved in a separate collision that injured two drivers.
The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office said in a
news release Tuesday that deputies responded to the car crash at the intersection of Geyser and Greenfield Roads in the town of Milton. A 2024 Ford F-150 pickup truck—a Saratoga County Office of Emergency Services vehicle en route to the airport—was traveling northbound on Greenfield Avenue when it struck a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee traveling eastbound on Geyser Road.
Both drivers were taken by Malta-Stillwater EMS to separate hospitals with apparently non-life-threatening injuries. The Sheriff's Collision Reconstruction Unit launched a separate investigation, and the road was closed while investigators worked the scene.
The crash of the Piper PA-25 is the latest in the region after a fatal plane crash occurred on Halloween, with one crashing in Milton, killing its pilot and leaving a passenger critically injured. Meanwhile, two men were killed when a 1963 Piper Cherokee
crashed into a residential neighborhood in Akron, Ohio, on May 14. The Summit County Medical Examiner identified the victims as pilot David Garcia of Hammond, Indiana, and flight instructor Colin Albee, 39, of Allen, Texas. Garcia left behind his wife, four children, and an unborn baby. Both men aboard died; no bystanders were reported injured.
