Plane Crashes in Cedar Key Fog (updated photos)

The plane crashed into a wooden dock.

A single-engine airplane crashed into a small dock near the Number Three Bridge on Tuesday February 22. The pilot, David B. Gearhart age 50 of Poughkeepsie, New York, suffered sever head injuries. He was freed from the cockpit by members of the Cedar Key Volunteer Fire Department about twenty minutes after the crash, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. Mr. Gearhart was transported from the scene by ambulance and taken to Rosewood to meet the medivac rescue helicopter. He died before the medivac unit arrived.

Rescuers attempting to free the pilot.

The cause of the crash was speculated on by various bystanders who were near the crash site. The plane had been traveling northeast a mile and a half from the Cedar Key Airport. Erik Brogren, who helped rescue the pilot, said that the plane was under power when it passed over a nearby house, and he thought that the pilot may have "lost his horizon". Another observer remarked that the plane had circled three or four times. Roland Senecal, who lives about sixty yards from the crash site, stated that the plane's engine seemed to misfire just before the crash.

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