Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Plane crashes near Tomé home

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Tomé A man flying an ultra-light aircraft crash-landed his homemade plane in the middle of a yard on Bloom-N-Shine in Tomé Tuesday morning.

The pilot, 75-year-old Curtiss Moses of Corrales, who took off from Mid-Valley Air Park in Los Chavez headed to the Belen Airport, called 911 on his cell phone after he crashed at about 8:30 a.m. Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera said Moses couldn't give dispatchers his exact location, only saying the he was behind a brown stucco house and that he could see a hill.

When law enforcement and rescue personnel first got word about the crash, they initially focused their attention on Belen's west mesa. But rescue personnel found the downed aircraft about a half an hour after the crash when the pilot told dispatchers he had just flown over a relative's home on Orona Road in Tomé.

"He wasn't too sure where he was," Rivera said. "He wasn't sure if he was near the Los Lunas Hill or the Tomé Hill — all he could see was the house and a hill. He was actually looking at Los Lunas Hill, but luckily, he was in the Tomé hill (area)."

Casey Davis, the county's fire investigator, was the first to find the crash and said Moses flew the small aircraft in between a house and a shed. No one was apparently home. The pilot crashed into what Davis described as a large metal tube.

"There was this big metal tube and door and I think that's what stopped him," Davis said. "That's what probably caused all the trauma to his lower legs. It was right up against his belly, and I had to pull it off of him.

"He said his motor quit and just went down," Davis said. "The man was awake and talking, but not doing too well. He lost some blood and was feeling weak and thought that he was going to pass out."

Moses was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital with a broken left leg, internal injuries, several lacerations and bruises. Davis said the man also received a large gash under his chin.

Peter Olson, director of communications for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday afternoon that Moses was undergoing surgery and was listed in critical condition.

At least two witnesses saw the small plane in the air and then crash. Becky Auge, who lives down the road from where the aircraft came down, was out for her morning run on a ditchbank when she saw the ultra-light in the air.

"I was like a mile and a half away when I saw the plane," Auge said. "He just came around, and it looked like he was trying to land, but I'm not sure. I knew it crashed, I saw him hit. I didn't know how bad it was, but he hit solid — he didn't tumble or anything."

Auge said she continued running home thinking that there wasn't much she could do without a cell phone. She said by the time she got home, she saw rescue personnel already on the scene.

Stephanie Bottinelli was at home when she heard something in the air above her house. She said she walked outside thinking that it was her husband, who flies paragliders.

"I looked up, and right then and there, he just stalled out and started gliding," Bottinelli said. "I walked towards it, and I figured that he'd land in one of the fields or the road, and a little while later I started walking my dog and then I saw the (police) cars coming and I figured that he wrecked.

"He wasn't out of control — he was just gliding," Bottinelli said of the pilot's actions in the air. "He was really high when I saw him; he wasn't close to the ground."

State Police Lt. Geno Trujillo, who is leading the crash investigation, said investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were called to the scene of the crash. Trujillo said the pilot's family had contacted state police after the accident and wanted to pick up the wreckage.

"That's fine with us, but we have to have that investigation done first," Trujillo said. "Once that's completed, they can take the wreckage to wherever they want."

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