The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration continue their probe into a small plane crash in Vermilion County Friday evening (July 13, 2018).
Michael Hartshorn, Chief Investigator for the Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department, tells VermilionCountyFirst.com News there was a person who witnessed the crash as the crop-duster came down in a field. The crash occurred about two-and-a-half miles northeast of the Vermilion Regional Airport – near the Illinois-Indiana state line.
The pilot was air-lifted from the scene and transported to a Champaign-Urbana hospital. His name was not released so information on his condition was not available.
Sheriff’s Captain Eric Deck says representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration were already at the Vermilion Regional Airport attending Balloons Over Vermilion. He says sheriff’s police escorted those FAA representatives to the site of the plane crash.
Deck added the crash was located far enough from the airport that events at Balloons Over Vermilion were allowed to continue. The Parade of Pilots was underway at the airport prior to Friday night’s flight by the balloons when sheriff’s police were notified about the plane crash nearby.
