Westerly
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Pilot crash-lands safely on Westerly front lawn
10:23 AM EDT on Monday, July 6, 2009
WESTERLY (AP) — A Connecticut pilot with 20 years of flying experience managed to avoid hitting a house while crash-landing his small plane in the front lawn of a house in Westerly.
Fourty-four-year-old Doug Durand of Danielson was pulling an advertising banner on his way back to Westerly Airport from New Haven when his one-seat, single-engine plane lost power at about 5 p.m. Saturday.
Durand managed to jettison the banner. He hit three sections of fence railings on Ocean View Highway during the landing but managed to miss the house and utility wires.
The plane’s landing gear, fabric and the frame of the wing were damaged in the landing, but Durand was not injured.
An aeronautics inspector on the scene ruled out the 40-year-old plane’s age or fuel supply as factors in the accident.
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