Pilot injured in Oak Hill plane crash

A home-built airplane crashed into a tree in Oak Hill Tuesday injuring the pilot, investigators with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

In a Twitter post, the Sheriff's Office said the experimental aircraft crashed at 5:20 p.m. in a wooded area near 1420 Maytown Road in Oak Hill.

An incident report indicates that the pilot, Vincent Grasso, 78, of Palm Bay, suffered a serious head injury and was airlifted by a sheriff's helicopter to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

He was reported to be in stable condition on Wednesday, said sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant.

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Grasso was the only occupant of the plane, investigating deputies said.

A witness, the owner of the property where the aircraft crashed, said she saw her neighbor take off and saw the airplane get lower and lower and then she heard a "boom" and then a smacking sound and could no longer hear the engine of the aircraft, the incident report states.

Another witness said he saw the aircraft make a left bank, then heard the engine of the aircraftbackfire and subsequently stall. A short time later he saw the aircraft crash into a tree, the report details.

In November, a pilot taking off in a homemade aircraft he had just obtained in a trade, also crashed trying to lift off from an airfield in Oak Hill.

That crash occurred at 3:35 p.m. in the 1700 block of Maytown Road. The pilot, Charles Alban, 73, of Venice, died of his injuries at AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Homemade airplane crashes in Oak Hill injuring pilot