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Single-engine airplane crashes onto Salisbury property killing student pilot

Published October 06. 2022 01:08PM
by JIM MARSH Special to The Press

A single-engine Piper aircraft crashed onto a residential property along Keystone Road in Salisbury Township shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sept. 28, killing the student pilot at the controls and badly injuring his instructor.

The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office identified the deceased student pilot Sept. 30 as 49-year-old Keith Kozel, of Easton. The instructor on the airplane, who was pulled from the aircraft by a contractor working at the property, was badly injured. His identity has not been released.

The airplane, owned by Pro Flite Aero Services, had taken off from Queen City Airport and crashed minutes later.

The Lehigh County 911 Center broadcast an “air crash,” alarm 1:43 p.m. dispatching engines and rescue units from Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company, Eastern Salisbury Fire Department, Lower Macungie Fire Department, Upper Macungie Fire Department, a tanker truck from South Whitehall’s Woodlawn Station and Emmaus and Cetronia ambulance corps.

Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joshua Wells was the first fire officer on scene. He established command and asked the 911 Center for an additional engine from Emmaus Fire Department and one from Allentown City.

Police units from Salisbury, Emmaus, Allentown and Pennsylvania State Police swarmed the site, as well as plainclothes officers from unidentified agencies.

Firefighters on first-arriving engines from Emmaus Fire Department and Western Salisbury attacked the fire that resulted from the crash, which had engulfed the front portion of the plane.

The craft first struck the upper portion of a large tree on the property and then landed upside down on the lawn just feet from the residence at 1480 Keystone Road.

A contractor who was working on a home renovation project on the property was able to drag the instructor from the craft, but the student pilot was unreachable as fire enveloped the front portion of the airplane.

Fire police from Eastern Salisbury Fire Department and Lower Macungie Fire Department controlled access to the scene.

Officials from the FAA and from the National Transportation Board, as well as the Salisbury Police Department, are investigating the incident, but air crash investigations typically take months, or years, for final federal reports to be issued.

A single-engine Piper aircraft is seen burning after crashing into a large tree and falling onto the yard at a Keystone Road property Sept 28. Moments later, a crew from Emmaus Fire Department was able to quell the fire with firefighting foam. The 49-year-old student pilot at the controls of the airplane perished and his instructor was badly injured. PRESS PHOTO BY JIM MARSH
Firefighters from Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company and the Emmaus Fire Department extinguish the last of the flames that consumed the front portion of a single-engine Piper aircraft after it crashed onto a property along Keystone Road in Salisbury Township Sept. 28. A portion of the plane's wing is seen lodged in the branches of a large tree the airplane struck.
PRESS PHOTOS BY JIM MARSH Salisbury Township Police Chief Kevin Soberick, left, police sergeant and township fire marshal Donald Sabo and Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joshua Wells discuss the probable flight path of a single-engine Piper airplane that crashed onto a property along Keystone Road Sept. 28, killing the student pilot at the plane's controls.