Pilot Was Reportedly Attempting An Emergency Landing In Texas

An Indiana man who was flying a Pipistrel Alpha Trainer from Indiana to Hutchison County Airport in Texas was fatally injured when the plane went down north of Pampa, TX in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (before dawn).

The pilot was identified as 64-year-old Donald Sharp, a former Texas resident who lived in Greenfield, IN. A passenger on board the airplane, 22-year-old Zachary Jenkins of Indianapolis, was hospitalized at Northwest Texas Hospital, where his condition was listed as 'satisfactory'.

Roberts County (TX) Department of Public Safety Trooper Chris Ray said that the two were flying to visit relatives in in Borger, TX, when the aircraft appeared to have run out of fuel. Ray said Jenkins told him that "we thought we had enough fuel" to make the trip. Hutchinson County Airport Manager Dennis O'Brian told the Amarillo Globe-News that he thought the pair had stopped for fuel in Wichita, KS, before continuing on to Texas.

Sharp, who friends said was a "top-notch" flight instructor in Indiana, may have attempted to deploy the Pipistrel's ballistic airframe parachute (reports vary) but the impact site was described by local law enforcement as "very rough." The airplane came down on the 68,000 acre Mesa Vista Ranch owned by T. Boone Pickens. Ranch hands were the first to respond to the accident scene.

(Pipistrel Alpha pictured in file photo. Not accident aircraft.)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov