NC Plane Crash Injures John Rufty

A unusual accident involving an airplane has resulted in a severe injury to a gentleman who was on the ground mowing some grass.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon at North Carolina’s Taylorsville Airport.  According to reports, an 84 year old man was piloting a single engine plane from Tennessee to visit family in Taylorsville.  As the plane approached the grass airstrip, a gentleman named John Rufty was mowing the grass on the strip headed in the same direction as the approaching plane.  Apparently, the plane landed close to Mr. Rufty and the propeller clipped Mr. Rufty and completely severed his hand.  The plane then flipped over but the pilot was fortunately not hurt.

This is a very unusual and unfortunate situation.  It would appear that the pilot should have determined that he could safely land before striking Mr. Rufty.  It would also appear that Mr. Rufty would have had his back to the place and would not have known that the plane was approaching.  Under these circumstances, we would expect that the pilot of the plane would have some liability to Mr. Rufty for his medical expenses and other injury related damages.