BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WAYNE TOWNSHIP -- Dropping Halloween candy to youngsters at a party apparently drew a pilot so close to the ground that his plane crashed in a field nearby, family and witnesses said Sunday.
"They got too low and too slow," said Daryl Ditmyer, a pilot and mechanic at Waynesville Airport.
When pilot Jim Zappe tried to raise the plane to clear trees and telephone wires, the engine stalled, Mr. Ditmyer said. "He pulled the aircraft up so steep, the engine couldn't pull it."
Mr. Zappe, 59, of Centerville, Ohio, was in serious condition at University Hospital, where he and passenger David Gerspacher were taken after the 5 p.m. crash Saturday.
Mr. Gerspacher, 30, caretaker at the farm on Township Line Road where the plane crashed, also was in serious condition in the intensive care unit.
The two-seater Piper Cub J-3 had passed a pond in front of the property when it nose-dived into the yard, said Steve Gerspacher, brother of David Gerspacher.
"They were just dropping candy out of the plane for the kids," he said. "They were kind of low. It was kind of a freak accident, and they kind of fell out of the air."
Steve Gerspacher was not at the party but he rushed to the house when he received word.
His brother smashed into the windshield, Steve Gerspacher said. Mr. Zappe had been piloting from the rear seat.
Partygoers pulled the friends from the plane. Two physicians among the guests revived Mr. Gerspacher, his brother said.
Mr. Gerspacher suffered chest and facial injuries and a sprained ankle.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official visited the crash site Sunday. A colleague at the local FAA office would not comment on the crash but said it is against regulations to throw things from planes.
Mr. Zappe had rented the plane at the airport, two miles from the crash site, and had made four or five trips from its runway with guests from the party, Mr. Ditmyer said.
Mr. Ditmyer was flying above the Piper Cub, ferrying people over the Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville, when he saw the plane go down.
Mr. Zappe was flying well below 1,000 feet, the distance from the ground a pilot is supposed to maintain in congested areas, said Mr. Ditmyer, who landed and rushed to the crash.
He estimated that 200 people were at the party, some distance from the crash.
