| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) A man was injured when the small plane he was piloting crashed Friday afternoon at the San Rafael Airport, police said.
``Actually, our chief of police saw this happen while driving on a road near the small private airport,'' San Rafael Police Department spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.
Witnesses on the ground reported seeing the plane take off and hearing its engines sputter before the crash.
``It appears the pilot turned around to try to come back and land, but hit the dirt just short of the runway,'' Rohrbacher said.
Only the pilot was on board the plane, a Piper Archer, four-seater, low wing aircraft.
Rohrbacher said he was transported by helicopter to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek with unknown injuries.