Airplane Reportedly Lost Power Just After Takeoff

A pilot from Texas was able to walk away from an accident in which the Piper Cub (similar aircraft pictured)  he was flying lost power just after takeoff from McIntosh airstrip in Montgomery County, OH, and went down in a homeowners vegetable garden.

The pilot is identified as 25-year-old Jared Calvert, according to television station WHIO-TV. The Dayton Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol told the station that Calvert said he was unable to maintain a positive rate of climb after taking off from the airport about 1545 EDT. He attempted to turn back to the airport, but contacted the tops of some trees and eventually came down in the garden.

Calvert was uninjured in the accident. He said he had restored the 1946 J-3 Cub, and began a trip across the country in April according to his blog rangerairfiels.org. He had nicknamed the airplane the Barn Cub, a reference to the 59 years it sat in a barn unused.

The person who owns the property where the airplane went down said he was just glad the pilot was OK. Jim Noelker said the large trees that Calvert hit before coming down probably saved his house. No one was home when the accident occurred.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov