Small plane crashes in NLV wash

Monday, March 31, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

Metro Police and the National Transportation Safety Board are trying to determine why a single-engine plane crashed in a flood control wash between an apartment complex and a heavily traveled roadway Sunday night.

About 8:36 p.m., a passerby called 911 on a cell phone to report that a plane had crashed about 10 feet from apartments in the 2900 block of North Rancho Drive, authorities said.

The only person in the plane was the pilot, a man in his 40s, Las Vegas Fire Dept. spokesman Tim Szymanski said. The pilot was taken to University Medical Center. He was conscious and suffered elbow and knee injuries.

The Beechcraft Bonanza apparently had lifted off Runway 7 at the North Las Vegas Airport when its engine failed, Clark County Aviation Department spokesman Carl Scarborough said. The pilot tried to land on North Rancho Drive and ended up in the dry ditch about 10 feet below the side of the road, firefighters said.

Parts of the aircraft were found along the curb of North Rancho Drive, but no one on the ground was injured, authorities said.

His name had not been released this morning, but the plane, a 1967 model, is registered to Joseph Randall Edwards of the 2800 block of West Charleston Boulevard.