By PAULA ANN MITCHELL
Freeman staff
pmitchell@freeman.com; twitter.com/anchoratfreeman

NEW BALTIMORE — The pilot of a small biplane that crashed behind a barn here Sunday afternoon remained hospitalized Monday with head trauma and facial fractures, authorities said.

Kevin Boehlke, 55, of Route 144, New Baltimore, took off from Wayne Delp Airport in West Coxsackie Sunday at about 5:30 p.m., said Lt. John Stegville of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department.

The Federal Aviations Administration is investigating the cause of the crash, but the preliminary report indicated that Boehlke was having engine problems and that he hadn’t intended to take off from the air strip.

“He was doing a high-speed taxi and (the plane) accidentally … took off. He had no intent to do so,” Stegville said. “A gust of wind got underneath him and it was either fly or crash.”

Boehlke wasn’t carrying any passengers when the plane crashed, taking down some trees and landing behind a barn in a small clearing, Stegville said.

“He was trying to make it to a field about 30 yards away, but he didn’t make it that far,” he said.

Stegville said Boehlke suffered head trauma and several broken bones in his jaw, nose and face.

It was initially reported that Boehlke had walked away with a bloody nose.

Boehlke was taken by Coxsackie Rescue to Albany Medical Center, where he remains in stable condition.

Stegville described Boehlke as an experienced pilot who had rebuilt his Jenny biplane, a 2/3 scale World War I replica. Continued...

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“From what I understand, he’s been flying for years,” Stegville said.

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