A pilot instructor and a student pilot escaped with minor injuries Tuesday when the small plane they were flying hit a tree and crash-landed at an airport in Somerset County, authorities said.
Student pilot James E. Finley, 70, of Hopatcong, and instructor Lorraine Denby, 73, of Berkeley Heights, were in a single-engine Cessna 172 attempting to land about 4:15 p.m. at Central Jersey Regional Airport, according to local police.“The left wing struck a tree and the plane crashed onto the runway and flipped over onto its roof,” Hillsborough Township police said in a statement.
Both pilots reported minor injuries in the crash, which occurred on the west side of a runway at the airport on Millstone River Road.
EMS workers took Denby to RWJ University Hospital-Somerset, where she was treated and released. Finley refused medical treatment at the scene, police said.