Pilot injured in a second plane crash

The weekend's second light-plane accident sent the aircraft's pilot and lone occupant to the hospital last night.

Douglas Tindal, 64, of Washington, Iowa, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids after his single-engine plane went down about two miles east of The Eastern Iowa Airport a few minutes after 8 p.m. His injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said.

“He was conscious, alert and talking to rescuers,” Gardner said.

“His face was bloody, looked like he had a broken nose - his face was just covered in blood,” Tim Hill, who rode a snowmobile to the crash site, told KCRG-TV9. “I asked him if his legs worked, everything. He said, ‘Yeah, I just want to get out of here.'”

The pilot had contacted the airport tower before the crash, worried about low fuel and attempting to land on a foggy night, Gardner said.

“The tower started to talk him down, and he did not make it to the field,” Gardner said.

The plane came to rest in an open field near a pond, about 500 feet south of Wright Brothers Boulevard SW near the Kirkwood Boulevard intersection.

The land is owned by Joe Krivanek, whose son Dave Krivanek lives near the crash site. The younger Krivanek was watching television when the crash happened and learned of it only when his father, who lives nearby, called to ask about the police and fire vehicles gathering there.

“This is probably the third plane since I was a little kid that has landed back there,” said Dave Krivanek, 52.

Operations at The Eastern Iowa Airport were shut down for about 15 minutes, although no flights were diverted, according to airport spokeswoman Pam Hinman.

Sunday's crash came almost exactly 24 hours after three people were injured in a similar accident. That crash scene was about a mile northwest of the airport. The plane's registration number is assigned to an aircraft based at Washington, Iowa, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site.