Klamath Falls pilot, 79, killed in small plane crash

(Updating with pilot’s identity)

A 79-year-old Klamath Falls man was killed Wednesday morning when the small plane he was piloting crashed into a field about a mile from the community’s airport, Sheriff Chris Kaber said.

The crash was reported around 10:50 a.m. in a field north of the South Side Bypass near Homedale Road, about a mile north of the Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport. Kaber said.

The pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, was identified by the sheriff as Abraham “Dutch” Van Rood of Klamath Falls.

Kaber said witnesses reported seeing the plane, registered as an experimental aircraft, flying erratically moments before the crash.

Several public safety agencies responded to the scene, and the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board also were contacted to conduct an investigation.