Student Pilot Survives, Hospitalized With Serious Injuries

A 58-year-old flight instructor was fatally injured Friday when the airplane in which he was conducting a lesson failed to gain sufficient altitude and went down on the site of an abandoned General Motors factory in Linden, NJ.

The two had departed from Linden Airport (KLDJ) Friday, according to a report from radio station WKXW. The flight instructor, identified as Craig McCallum of Montclair, NJ, declared an emergency and was reportedly attempting to return to the airport when the accident occurred. The plane came to rest on railroad tracks at the former automotive plant, which had closed in 2005.

FAA records indicate that the airplane was a Diamond DA20 registered to NC Cuthbert LLC in Morris, NJ. It was being operated by Best in Flight flight school at Linden Airport, where it had been based for about two years, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper.

A witness said he had seen the plane take off, and appear to "struggle" to gain altitude. He said there was no discernible sound of impact from his vantage point.

The instructor died of his injuries at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. The student reportedly remains hospitalized at University Hospital in Newark, NJ.

(Diamond DA20 pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane.)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov