Man's hand severed as plane lands on him at airport
A man lost his hand while on a mowing the lawn at an American airport after a plane crashed into him.
John Rufty, 74, was mowing the grass at North Carolina's Taylorsville Airport on Saturday afternoon when the small plane crash-landed on him, chopping off his hand.
New York Daily News reports that pilot Edward Eugene Sisson, 84, is experienced in flying planes and was flying in from Tennessee.
Sisson escaped uninjured.
Rufty was not warned of the incoming plane as the airport does not have traffic controllers.
According to Hickory Record, his injuries were severe but not life threatening.
He was taken to hospital and his nephew said he was on blood thinners and lost a large amount of blood.
The Daily Mail reports that Russell Greene, emergency management coordinator for Alexander County, said: "This is a simple grass strip, small planes only. Typically, pilots circle the field, make sure the field is clear, and then come in and land."
The National Transportation Safety Board was leading an investigation and no charges were made at the time of the incident.
In January, the pilot of a German army Tornado fighter plane was left hanging in a tree with a parachute after his plane crashed near Koblenz, western Germany.
The accident occurred on 16 January shortly after the plane took off from the nearby Büchel airbase.
The pilot and the co-pilot were slightly injured after being ejected with parachutes before the plane crashed.
Neither of the men needed hospital treatment, but one of them landed in a tree and was left stuck there until emergency services could get to the scene.
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