A pilot suffered minor injuries after his bright yellow Piper J-3 Cub plane ran off a runway and flipped onto its roof at the Rostraver Airport on Sunday, officials said.
The call came in shortly after 2:45 p.m. as an “aircraft down” at the airport.
According to a Westmoreland County 911 dispatcher, the plane landed and was taxiing the runway, when it went off the runaway and into the grass, where it flipped over.
“The pilot was coming in to land, and he ended up (in) the grass off to the right side of the runway,” said Maurice Haas, the airport’s director of public safety.
Haas said the pilot wasn’t seriously injured, and managed to get himself out of the plane by the time firefighters and airport personnel arrived at the scene.
“He had a couple scrapes here and there,” Haas said. “He was checked out by local EMS.”
Haas said the pilot had been alone in the high-wing plane when the incident occurred. The plane is based at the Rostraver Airport.
Haas couldn’t provide the pilot’s identity, say where the pilot had been flying, or what may have caused the incident. It will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, Haas said.
“I don’t know what the issue was,” Haas said. “As far as we know, it wasn’t an emergency landing.”
