Local News
Plane headed for air show doesn’t make it
MIDLOTHIAN — John Sledge, a 72 year old pilot of an antique military plane, one which was scheduled to take part in the Thunder Over Cedar Creek Air Show last week, survived the crash of his plane last Saturday morning.
Bob O’Neil, President of the Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation, which sponsored the show along with other business organizations, said, “He was on our schedule to do an acrobatic fly over in the Thunder over Cedar Creek Lake Air Show last Saturday.”
Sledge was headed to Pounds Field in Tyler,” said O’Neil, of the Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation.
The crash occurred in a field off of Black Champ and Little Branch roads, about a quarter-mile east of the facility.
“The pilot of the aircraft was a retired Vietnam veteran flying a military grade aircraft,” Ovilla Fire Chief Donnie Pickard said, noting crews responded to the call at about 9:05 a.m.
“The downed aircraft was located in a 1,000-acre farmer’s field.
Crews were on scene for about an hour.”
The engine seized on takeoff, causing Sledge to lose l his engine.
The pilot then diverted back to the Midway Airport in Midlothian
He wound up with a concussion, stress fracture of a vertebrae, and a cut on his face.
He’s in good condition, numerous newspapers say.
Sledge told rescuers the engine of his T-28 trainer stopped shortly after he took off from Midway Airport in Midlothian.
Sledge said he had to find the safest possible spot to bring the T-28 trainer down, and did so in a farmer's field.
He was injured in the crash, and is hospitalized in good condition.
The Midlothian firemen who got Sledge out of the wreckage said they don't often see World War Two aircraft crumpled in the middle of a field with parts and debris scattered all around.
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