TROTWOOD — A man who was critically hurt in an ultralight aircraft crash over the weekend is speaking out.
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55-year-old Ernest Mylo Washington III is recovering at Miami Valley Hospital after the crash at an airstrip in Trotwood on Sunday afternoon.
News Center 7’s Amber Jenkins talks to Washington’s family, who said it’s a miracle that he’s awake and talking.
He was found lying in a field off North Lutheran Church and Old Dayton Roads, sliced up by the aircraft’s propeller.
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“I always wanted to fly, it’s every guy’s dream, I guess. And when I found an airplane halfway put together, I knew that I was gonna get it together and fly it,” Washington said.
He flew ultralight aircraft a few times before Sunday’s flight.
He described what it was like among the clouds.
“I was up so high that I could look to see Franklin, Caesar’s Creek, and Huber Heights at a glance. And that was awesome,” Washington said.
The Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t require pilots to have a license to fly this kind of aircraft.
Trouble started when Washington tried to land.
“I went up too fast and landed too fast and uh made a couple small mistakes which well turned into big mistakes, and I wound up here,” Washington said.
He crashed into a field south of Trotwood and was flown from the aircraft.
Emergency crews spent two hours stabilizing Washington before CareFlight took him to the hospital in critical condition.
After multiple surgeries, he’s already on the road to recovery.
“I’m wiggling my toes, my fingers. I’ve already went for a walk. So, it’s not as bad as everybody thought in the beginning, although you could see my kidney and my spine was exposed. It just needed to cover back up,” Washington said.
It’s going to take Washington a lot of time to make a full recovery.
But he said he doesn’t regret anything, because that’s how great it felt to fly.
As previously reported, this crash remains under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
OSHP has notified the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the crash.
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