College student from Glendale Heights hurt in Wis. plane crash
A Glendale Heights aviation student remained in critical condition Thursday following a plane crash in Wisconsin that left him and another man severely burned.
The two University of Dubuque students - Cory Alsip from Glendale Heights, and Grant Vogt of Dubuque, Iowa - were in a light airplane near the Cassville Municipal Airport. Their flight plan and destination haven't been released.
Shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, their plane came in shy of the airport and just above the tree line at the Eagle Roost Resort in Cassville, according to motel owner Ron Hulst.
One of his guests, John Cosgrove, was standing outside a cabin talking on a cell phone when the plane came in low and turned sideways and one of the doors fell open, Hulst said. The plane then righted itself, flew underneath power lines and hit blacktop before bouncing into a tree and two cabins.
Cosgrove then told his friend to call 911 and ran to the other side of the plane where he saw one of the men on the ground in flames, took off his shirt to douse the fire and moved him away from the plane, Hulst said.
He then saw the second plane occupant walking on the nearby road with some of his clothing on fire, ran over to him and told him to roll on the ground, Hulst explained.
Hulst, who had been at a nearby grocery store during the crash, then arrived back home as they tried to get the men away from the fire - and they watched the plane and cabins burst into flames.
According to an open letter on the University of Dubuque Web site, President Jeffrey Bullock said it appears the school's Trinidad airplane "experienced a catastrophic incident as the aircraft was making a landing approach at the Cassville airport.
The aviators were able to bring the aircraft down on a road, the plane continued across a parking lot, and ended passing between two cabins."
Had it been earlier or later in the week, those cabins likely would have been occupied, Hulst said.
"We were very fortunate no one was there," he said.
Bullock said that a school chaplain is at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital with both students and their families, and reported it appears Alsip's injuries are the less severe of the two men.
Both men are juniors at the school.