Experimental plane crashes in Brantford

Two men are recovering from serious injuries after an experimental plane crashed this morning — during a test flight in Brantford.

This is the field where the experimental aircraft landed. The last pieces of it were taken away a couple hours ago, but you can see we’re right next to the Brantford airport. It looked as if the aircraft was headed back to the runway at about 20 to eight this morning when it crashed. Farmers in this tobacco field were getting used to the balloon-like aircraft circling them, every morning at about seven.

Doc Hulcolm, migrant worker: “Like a bird. Like an eagle, that’s what it looked like.”

Richard Takacs, tobacco farmer: “Like a blimp. Very noisy, very slow. Just putts around in the sky.”

But this morning the noise suddenly stopped.

Richard Takacs: “They could hear the motor conking out and it dropped.

Doc Hulcolm: “We don’t hear nothing more so we ran back and saw it drop in the tobacco field and four of us ran over to it.”

Migrant workers from Jamaica were first on scene. They pushed away the tarp and broken pieces of metal and pulled out the pilot, who appeared to have a broken leg and arm. But they couldn’t get the passenger.

Doc Hulcolm: “The one in the back, we were trying to get out. Couldn’t — him pinned this way and him bleeding.”

The company, Solar Ship, had no comment, although shortly after the transportation safety board concluded its investigation, workers began picking up the pieces and trucking them to their nearby hangar.

This aircraft is the smallest version of solar hybrid blimp they make. Filled with helium and run with four engines, two of them powered by the solar panels on the wings. It’s designed to fly into remote places using very little fuel. It doesn’t need a runway or a road to take off or land. The company has been testing it here for a few years, but only started the morning tours around the tobacco field two weeks ago — limited by transportation authorities to a 25 mile radius of the Brantford airport. This morning, for the first time, it tried to make two passes around the field.

Mark Taylor is the pilot who is usually in command of the Solar Ship here, and the farmer who owns this property was told a man named Taylor, and a dignitary from Africa were aboard when it went down. The injuries are serious but they are expected to survive.