Crop-Duster Crashes, Injures Pilot

Crop-Duster Crashes, Injures Pilot


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A crop-duster pilot who suffered 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns on his arms when he lost control of his airplane and crashed Monday said windshear was to blame.

Michael R. Thornton, 42, told The Associated Press he was dusting weevil-control pesticide over an alfalfa field about three miles east of Circleville at 9:30 a.m. when he crashed while banking a turn.

"I got some major, major windshear," he said during a telephone interview from Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch. "I lost all ability to control the airplane because the air going over the wings suddenly changed direction."

Thornton said he tried to turn the plane and release the remaining pesticide he was carrying when he crashed.

"The tail set down first, actually pretty soft. ... I didn't hit the instrument panel with my helmet," he said. "The flames started immediately."

Thornton, a Parowan resident and owner of Aero Eagle Aviation, said the farmer who owned the field got to him first on his tractor. A friend "driving a hundred miles an hour in his truck" picked him up and drove him to a nearby dairy "so I could get some water on these burns."

An ambulance took him to the hospital. "I bet the whole town of Circleville came out to see if I was OK," he said.

Circleville, a town of 500 residents, is 180 miles south of Salt Lake City.

"I just kept flying the plane. That's the rule you learn in flight school," he said. "I know for a fact I was being watched over today. I've lost my plane but I do have another one and I plan to keep working."

Thornton said his right arm has a bad burn from elbow to hand, but the burn on his left arm was "just a little teeny one." He said his wife would drive him Tuesday to the University of Utah Hospital burn unit on his doctor's recommendation.

"As soon as I get back I'm going to continue with the spraying season," he said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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