Authorities say a 77-year-old Michigan pilot died from blunt-force trauma when his vintage single-engine plane crashed into a tree line near a southern Indiana airfield.
The Bartholomew County coroner says toxicology tests are pending from the autopsy on Ren Sagaert of Shelby Township, Michigan, following Wednesday's crash. Coroner Clayton Nolting tells The (Columbus) Republic that Sagaert's death has been ruled accidental.
The sheriff's department says Sagaert was the only occupant of the 1948 plane. It had taken off from a nearby grass airstrip owned by a plane mechanic when it crashed near the community of Hartsville, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Indianapolis.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. A nearby resident says he heard the plane's engine cut out, followed by a "big bang."
