(Contributed photo)
Update, 10:30 p.m.: A glider pilot was reported injured following a reported small glider plane crash Monday evening on the property of the Philadelphia Glider Council on Route 152 in Hilltown Township.
At 7:28 p.m., Chal-Brit EMS and fire officials from Silverdale Fire, Dublin Fire, and Hilltown Fire were dispatched to a report of a small plane crash on the 800 block of Limekiln Pike after a passerby spotted the glider in a field, according to Bucks County North radio dispatch.
However, upon arrival, officials were told the crash occurred two hours prior, with one person taken to an area hospital by a friend. A witness had called in the report of a crashed plane to authorities.
A picture of the type of glider involved in the reported crash Monday evening in Hilltown (Credit: Flight Radar)Phil Klauder, a volunteer with the Philadelphia Glider Council, said the pilot landed the glider about 100 feet from the end of the runway. He said there were no injuries and no damage to the plane -- just a bruised ego.
Photos captured Monday night at the airfield captured Council volunteers disassembling a glider to put in a trailer to drive to a nearby hangar. Gliders are built to be dissembled and stored in a trailer every night, Klauder said.
Philadelphia Glider Council President Chris Lee reported that the pilot was checked out and will be released from the hospital.
"We train in our gliders for off-field landings such as this. In this event, the pilot never lost control of the aircraft, nor were there any malfunctions," Lee said. "The pilot identified that they would not make it back to the field and landed the aircraft safely in teh field at the end of our runway."
While the county reported the incident as a crash, Lee said it was anything but.
"The bumps in the field affected the tire, but the aircraft did not crash," he said. "We are always very conscious of the safety of our pilots, our gliders and our neighbors."
According to historical flight data on the Flight Radar website, at least two Burkhart Grob G-103A Twin II gliders were in the air around the time of the incident between 5 and 6 p.m.
