Shaken Harvard pilot safe after crash landing

Shortly after Harvard pilot Thomas Chapman took off for a third time Monday from a small local airport, the engine keeping him airborne started to slow down.

Then it just died out.

The 62-year-old Chapman and his passenger, 29-year-old Roch Magelby-Lambert, suddenly found themselves quietly gliding as the 1961 two-seater lost altitude.

As Chapman scanned the approaching ground for a safe place to crash land, he picked out a patch of grass in front of Greenwood Elementary School in Woodstock. But he couldn't avoid the power line in his path or the school's large sign.

"I'm very grateful to be alive and also very grateful no one else got hurt," Chapman told ABC7 Chicago with visible scrapes on his head and face.

The tail of Chapman's Aircoupe was ripped from the plane during the crash landing. Fuel began spilling out, but it never ignited.

Firefighters arrived at the scene just after the crash, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m.

Children were not in the nearby school because of summer vacation.

Chapman said he was taking associates sightseeing in the area. It was his third time up in the air that morning, departing from Galt Airport near Wonder Lake, authorities say.

Both Chapman and Magelby-Lambert of Cambridge, Mass., declined medical treatment, said Woodstock Fire Deputy Chief Terry Menzel.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. A report is expected in the next two months, said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro.