Small plane crashes at private runway, injuring 2

ATLANTIC — A small plane crashed Tuesday afternoon on a private runway in East Fallowfield Township, Pennsylvania State Police in Meadville said.

Two men in the plane were hurt but refused medical treatment, police said.

Pilot James B. Townsend, 74, of Atlantic was attempting to land the 1945 Taylor Craft single-engine plane at 2:15 p.m. in an open field at the southeast corner of McMaster and Atlantic roads, police said.

Townsend reported that he was flying too high and tried to fly around for another attempt at landing when the plane lost lift and struck trees, police said.

The aircraft ended up in the trees with its nose into the ground, police said.

Police said Townsend and a passenger, Richard R. Price, 77, of Atlantic, received minor injuries but refused to be taken to a hospital.

Man fled DUI charges over illness, but lived

GREENVILLE — Eleven years after his arrest, Charles Irving Shaffer went to jail Monday on a first-offense drunken driving charge. His case dates back to 1996.

But Shaffer, 54, formerly of 170 S. Mercer St., Greenville, had an excuse — his attorney, Randall Hetrick, said he had contracted a life-threatening illness that made his expected jail term a relatively low priority in his life.

Shaffer moved to Illinois and medical advances eventually saved him, Hetrick said. He was recently picked up on a warrant, though, and pleaded guilty to drunken driving on Aug. 7 this year.

Judge Thomas R. Dobson, who sentenced him, told Shaffer that after a while he knew he wasn’t on the verge of death and should have returned.

Hetrick also pointed out that Shaffer had no prior criminal record and hasn’t been arrested since the drunken driving charges. Dobson gave him 30 days to 15 months in jail with five days’ credit and ordered him to pay costs and fines.