Thorpedo Down Near DTO

A birthday plane ride turned hairy this week, when a pilot and his 16-year-old son were injured when their aircraft crashed Thursday evening near Denton Municipal Airport (DTO) in North Texas.

Denton police spokesman Jim Bryan told Dallas' KDFW-4 the plane, an Indus T-211 "Thorpedo" light-sport aircraft (accident aircraft shown below), was approaching the field from the north just before 2000 CDT Thursday when it disappeared from the control tower's view. The aircraft impacted heavy brush and trees near telephone lines, and came to rest inverted; it is unknown whether the aircraft struck the lines.

The teen, Colby Kreutzer, was taken by ambulance to an area hospital. His father was airlifted to a Dallas hospital via helicopter, according to the television station.

"They were lucky they didn't strike [a nearby structure]," said City of Denton Spokesman John Cabrales. "They were very lucky."

Both are expected to make a full recovery. Colby's stepfather told reporters the flight was to celebrate Colby's 16th birthday.

The aircraft departed from Grand Prairie Municipal (GPM) airport, 31 nautical miles south of Denton.

According to the FAA Preliminary Report, the Denton tower had given the aircraft a "green light" to land at the airport -- perhaps implying the plane was receiving light signals from the tower, a procedure typically used when radio contact cannot be established between an aircraft and the tower.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 211LS        Make/Model: LTSP      Description: (LIGHT SPORT) T211 THORPEDO
  Date: 10/04/2007     Time: 0052

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Serious     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: DENTON    State: TX   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES AFTER GREEN LIGHT FROM TOWER WAS GIVEN TO AIRCRAFT, DENTON, TX

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   1     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: UNK

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Pleasure      Phase: Landing      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: FORT WORTH, TX  (SW19)                Entry date: 10/05/2007

FMI: www.faa.gov