BURLINGTON, Wash. – A 69-year-year pilot is dead after a small plane crashed at the Skagit County Regional Airport near Burlington.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer says the pilot of a single-engine Piper PA-12 died when the plane crashed during take off.
Kenitzer says the plane went down just after 1 p.m. Thursday.
TV news footage showed the plane lying upside down on grass next to a runway. The plane's front and one wing were smashed.
Kenitzer says witnesses described the plane going "straight up, then straight down."
The Skagit Valley Herald reports the pilot was a 69-year-old man from Bow, Wash., a small town 10 miles north of Burlington.
The Skagit County sheriff's office says the man was working on his plane before the doomed flight. His name has not been released.
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