Student pilot who crashed in Plymouth lost engine power at 5,500 feet, preliminary report says

The pilot of a small plane that crashed into a campground in Plymouth earlier this month lost power to her engine more than 5,000 feet in the air and tried to glide her way to an airstrip about a mile away from the crash site, according to a preliminary report.

The preliminary findings released this week by the National Transportation Safety Board said the student pilot, who suffered minor injuries during the crash, had taken off from Wappingers Falls, New York with full fuel tanks for what was supposed to be a solo cross-country flight on June 3 in a single-engine Cessna 172.

At about 5,500 feet in the air, the pilot reported that the engine’s rpm started dropping before it lost all power, according to the preliminary report. The propeller then stopped windmilling before the pilot unsuccessfully tried restarting the engine, the report said.

According to the NTSB, the pilot then diverted from her original flight path and tried to glide to a nearby airport. The plane went down just before 11 a.m. in a wooded area that is part of Gentile’s Campground in Terryville.

The crash occurred about a mile away from Waterbury Airport.

The preliminary report said the aircraft ended up inverted following the impact, which caused substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.

According to the Terryville Volunteer Fire Department, the pilot was initially trapped in the plane and had to be extricated before she was taken to Waterbury Hospital.

An inspector with the Federal Aviation Administration found that about ¾ of the plane’s fuel was still intact after a fuel leak that was caused by the impact, the preliminary report said.

The crash remains under investigation.