Plane crash kills two, injures two
Aircraft had engine trouble on departure, officials say.
By Katie Humphrey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, March 05, 2006
A small plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Georgetown Municipal Airport on Saturday morning, killing the pilot and one passenger and injuring two others.
Alfredo Gonzalez, 34, of Austin was flying the Skyline Cessna 182. Leon Garcia-Cano, 38, of Monterrey, Nuevo León, was also killed, said Keith Hutchinson, spokesman for the City of Georgetown.
Two other men, ages 38 and 39, from Monterrey, Nuevo León, were transported to the hospital. The city refused to release their names.
One man was originally taken to Brackenridge Hospital and later transferred to the Brooke Army Medical Center burn unit in San Antonio. The second man was taken to Scott & White Hospital in Temple before being transferred to a burn unit at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
The small propeller plane appeared to be having engine trouble on takeoff. It broke up and caught fire when it went down in a field near the end of the runway, about 200 yards south of Lakeway Drive, about 11 a.m., Hutchinson said.
Witnesses said the plane was flying very low, barely clearing the power lines along the road, he said.
One of the injured men was able to walk to the road to seek help, and witnesses flagged down a passing fire engine, Hutchinson said.
The men were on their way to Colorado to go skiing.
It is unclear whether the plane, which is registered in Mexico, has been involved in any previous crashes, said Roland Herwig, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
FAA investigators from San Antonio are looking into the crash and have notified Mexican aviation authorities, Herwig said.
The National Transportation and Safety Board will investigate the crash site today, Hutchinson said.
It was the first plane crash in Williamson County this year.
A Cessna 208 under contract with FedEx crashed into a home northeast of Round Rock in October after taking off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The pilot, who was trying to make an emergency landing at the Georgetown Airport, escaped with minor injuries.
There were two accidents near the Georgetown Airport in 2004. A small plane was forced to land on Interstate 35 frontage road near Williams Drive and knocked over two road signs in April 2004, but no one was injured.
One month later, two small planes collided while trying to land on the same runway at the airport. Neither pilot was seriously injured, but the accident briefly reignited debate over whether to build a control tower at the small airport.
