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Single-Engine Plane Crashes at St. Pete-Clearwater Airport

PlaneCrash|PInellasSheriff|StPete ClearwaterAirport

The pilot said he was having mechanical issues.

PINELLAS COUNTY – A Pensacola man was seriously injured Saturday (Nov. 25) when the single-engine plane he was flying crashed at St. Pete-International Airport.

The pilot, Robert A. Brandon, 67, of Pensacola, was taken to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg with serious, but non-life threatening injuries. He was the only one in the plane.

The crash happened about 1:19 p.m. next to runway 36 at the airport, 14700 Terminal Blvd. in Clearwater, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said.

Brandon told deputies that he was headed to Pensacola when he took off from runway 36. He was airborne traveling northbound when he started experiencing mechanical problems with the plane.

With intentions of landing the plane, deputies say Brandon turned the plane in a right eastbound direction and the plane crashed next to the runway.

The engine and both wings of the plane, a 2005 Piper Meridian fixed-wing aircraft, were damaged as a result of the crash.

The investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted by the FAA and the NTSB. It has not been determined what caused the plane to crash.

For information about the Pinellas sheriff, go to pcsoweb.com.

Photo courtesy of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

Pinellas Sheriff | Plane Crash | St. Pete-Clearwater Airport | Tampabay News

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