The sole occupant of an ultralight plane was found dead on Saturday morning after the small aircraft went down in a densely wooded area of St. Mary County in Southern Maryland.
Multiple 911 calls began flooding in shortly after 9 a.m., alerting dispatchers to a possible plane crash near the Hollywood community, according to the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office. Among the callers was a resident on Meredith Court who reported seeing what appeared to be a plane going down after its engine cut out, the sheriff’s office told
local news outlet Southern Maryland News Net.
Using tips from witnesses and assistance from citizens with ATVs and other off-road vehicles, search teams scoured the area between Hollywood Road and St. Johns Road. The Maryland State Police Aviation Command deployed a helicopter to aid in the aerial search, a spokesperson confirmed to NTD News.
Around 10:14 a.m., sheriff's deputies
found the wreckage and relayed their coordinates so paramedics and firefighters could reach them. Within minutes, medical crews confirmed that a small single-engine aircraft had crashed into the woods with one person aboard.
The operator and sole occupant was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement that the Maryland State Police provided to NTD News. The identity of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The Maryland State Police said the preliminary investigation indicates the aircraft was a small ultralight that crashed for reasons that remain unknown. The Maryland Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified, and the investigation remains active under a joint effort that also includes the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Ultralight aircraft that comply with
FAA Part 103 regulations do not require registration, a tail number, a pilot's license, or transponder equipment, according to the FAA. The vehicles are generally limited to single-seat operations with no more than five gallons of fuel, a top speed of 55 knots, and an empty weight under 254 pounds—and their flights do not appear on radar, which complicated Saturday's search.
The crash is the latest in a string of small-aircraft accidents across the country. On Thursday, a 61-year-old pilot
was killed when a single-engine plane crashed into Beaver Lake near Rogers, Arkansas. Earlier this month, a veteran flight instructor and his wife died after their plane struck power lines in Texas, and four Tennessee residents were killed when a turboprop went down near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
In less severe cases, on Feb. 20, a Piper PA-18 nosed over on a frozen lake in Maine, leaving its pilot uninjured. The following day, on Feb. 21, a Cessna 177B crash in a remote part of eastern Arizona sent two people to the hospital but left them in stable condition.
