Pictured: A Skybolt
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Dubravko Sertovic

What: Fixed Wing Single-Engine Steen Skybolt (Cooper Skybolt) bi-plane en route from West Harrison Airport (Cincinnati West)
Where: McNicholas High School in Harrison Ohio
When: Aug 21, 2009 8:08 p.m.
Who: pilot and a female passenger
Why: Witnesses watching a football scrimmage between Harrison and McNicholas High School say that while en route, the plane climbed, pitched left, seemed to struggle, then took a nosedive, crashing near the high school and killing 47 year old pilot Raymond Robben of Guilford, Indiana, and passenger 52 year old Belinda Roy of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The pilot and his girlfriend were on a pleasure ride when the plane failed, crashing a quarter of a mile from the end of the runway.

Robben was a corporate pilot for the JTM Food Group.

FAA registration lists the biplane as being manufactured in 1996, classified an amateur built experimental aircraft and Robben is listed as as a certified commercial pilot and flight instructor.

George’s Point of View

As with all tragic flights, we express condolences to the families.