Maple Park pilot killed, toddler injured in plane crash
A Maple Park resident was killed and a toddler injured Saturday in a small plane crash in rural DeKalb County, authorities said.
Deputies with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and first responders with the Hinckley police and fire departments, Waterman Fire Department and Big Rock Fire Department responded to the crash about 3:30 p.m. at Hinckley Airfield, 12747 U.S. Route 30, authorities said.
The 51-year-old pilot was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 3-year-old was taken to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and then transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, officials said.
Sheriff Andy Sullivan called the deadly crash “a tragedy.”
Authorities did not immediately identify the pilot, pending notification of next of kin. The pilot and child were the only people in the plane at the time, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the pilot took off from Hinckley Airfield in a 1946 Aeronca Champion 7AC single-engine plane. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed in a farm field just west of the airfield.
Authorities from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what caused the crash.