A vintage World War II-era trainer plane flipped onto its back while landing at Heritage Field Airport in Limerick Township Wednesday evening, trapping the pilot upside down in the cockpit before first responders pulled him free. The pilot, the aircraft's sole occupant, was taken to a nearby hospital in non-life-threatening condition.
The crash happened around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at the small general aviation airfield on the 3300 block of West Ridge Pike, according to 6abc Philadelphia. Chopper 6 video showed the aircraft flipped upside down in a grassy area of the airport, and officials said one person was transported to a hospital, though the extent of the injuries was not immediately known at the time. The extraction and hospital transfer were later detailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported that emergency crews responded to calls around the same time and freed the trapped pilot before he was taken to the hospital.
The aircraft has since been identified as a 1944-built Harvard III, registration N407EZ, a type widely used as an advanced trainer during World War II. That identification came from Daily Voice, which reported the aircraft overturned while attempting to land at the airport. The aircraft's service history and importation date were not detailed in the cited reports.
A Small Airfield With A History Of Close Calls
Heritage Field Airport, listed under the FAA identifier KPTW, is a privately owned, public-use general aviation facility with a single 3,371-foot asphalt runway, according to AirNav data. Wikipedia records show the airport handles roughly 23,400 aircraft operations a year and serves as home base for more than 100 general aviation aircraft, a mix of private, corporate, instructional, and recreational flying. The field was formerly known as Pottstown-Limerick Airport and was owned by utility Exelon Generation Company, due to its proximity to the Limerick Generating Station, until it was sold to private operator Limerick Aviation LP in 2009.
Wednesday's crash was not the airfield's first brush with a rough landing. In March 2016, a single-engine 1962 Mooney M20C crash-landed in an adjacent field shortly after takeoff following a sudden loss of engine power, with the pilot sustaining lacerations and being transported to Paoli Hospital for treatment of possible internal injuries after steering the plane into open ground, per Patch. In July 2021, the Limerick Fire Department responded to a plane crash with an active fire at the airport, deploying two hose lines, water tankers, and foam, with mutual aid from neighboring departments, to put out the flames.
Cause Still Under Investigation
The cause of Wednesday's crash remains under investigation, per 6abc. Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board protocols call for investigators to examine wreckage, interview witnesses, and analyze radar data after general aviation crashes.
Vintage tailwheel warbirds like the T-6/Harvard are part of aviation history. General aviation safety extends beyond this incident.
