WAKEFIELD, Va. (WAVY) - The wreckage started just short of the runway and stretched back more than 50 feet. The plane first hit a corn field at 3 p.m. Friday and flipped over, spreading dirt across a road as it broke apart.
Police say the pilot of the two-seat plane, Herbert Gedney Rutter, 80, of Hollidaysburg, Penn., was ejected from the plane during the crash and died. According to the Federal Aviation Administration's airmen certification information, Rutter was issued his pilot's license February 22, 2010. State police said he was flying alone.
Authorities said he tried to land two times before crashing.
"At the terminal building, that's where I met these two pilots that had just landed," said Wakefield Mayor Charles Britt, "and one of them said made these two attempted landings, and the last one was a little hard, but he couldn't see how much damage had been done."
The plane, a Rutan Long-EZ, was home-built. According to the FAA's aircraft certification information, the plane was finished in 1995. The structure of the airplane, made of composites, crumbled during the crash, leaving a trail of fractured fiberglass.
The front wing, called the "canard," split off the fuselage (or the body of the plane) and fell on the road, while the two main wings broke off and came to rest on the airfield's property.
Authorities re-opened the runway at 5 p.m. Friday, keeping part of the taxiway blocked off as the investigation began into what went wrong.
At the time of the crash, Wakefield Municipal Airport reported clear skies, unrestricted visibility, and light winds.