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Engine Of Crashed Plane Removed From Columbus House

Last updated on Tuesday, July 30, 2013

(COLUMBUS) - Crews used a bulldozer to remove the charred engine of a home-built airplane from the central Indiana home that it crashed into last week.

The engine was loaded on a flatbed trailer on Sunday. Columbus Police Lt. Matt Myers says it was taken to the Columbus Municipal Airport for a thorough inspection by federal investigators.

Pilot Gerald Clayton and passenger Dennis King were injured when the two-seat plane crashed in the neighborhood about a mile from the city's airport. No one else was hurt.

Myers tells The Republic that accounts of witnesses about the plane's engine racing while it slowed down matched what King told investigators.

King was in fair condition at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, where Clayton remained in serious condition in its burn unit.

Lt. Myers says King has told them the plane was slowing down but the engine was racing at the time of the crash Thursday.

Myers told The Republic for a story Sunday that investigators were able to interview King in an Indianapolis hospital.

The 60-year-old Columbus man remained in fair condition Sunday in the burn unit at Wishard Memorial Hospital. A spokeswoman says 81-year-old pilot Gerald Clayton of Columbus remains in serious condition there.

Myers says investigators haven't been able to talk with Clayton yet because of the extent of his injuries.

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