Crop-Duster Emergency Landing

By The Record, Stockton, Calif.

May 18–VICTOR — For the second time in three days, a pilot of a crop-duster made an emergency landing on San Joaquin County farmland and walked away.

On Wednesday, a 1987 Air Tractor single-wing plane smashed through 12-year-old merlot grapevines when it landed in a vineyard west of Cherry Road and south of the Mokelumne River around 1:30 p.m.

The pilot, working for Lodi’s Precissi Flying Service, had been spraying a pesticide on mosquito larvae on soaked farmland around the river when the airplane went down, leaving about a 100-foot gash in a vineyard.

When emergency medical crews arrived in Mettler’s vineyard, the cockpit was empty and the pilot gone. San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Les Garcia said the pilot didn’t dial 911 but called someone else to get a ride for medical treatment. Lodi Memorial Hospital reported the pilot was treated and released but wouldn’t provide his name.

Another crop-duster crashed Monday near Tracy, flipping the 1975 Grumman. That pilot was uninjured.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

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