Two men in their 60s were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after their glider aircraft crashed into a field on the border of Kane and McHenry counties Sunday afternoon.
The Huntley Fire Protection District and McHenry County Sheriff’s Office responded around 1 p.m. Sunday to the Sky Soaring Glider Club, 12020 Grant Highway, which is in unincorporated Hampshire and near Huntley.
The Hampshire Fire Protection District and Kane County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene.
Sheriff’s deputies located two occupants of a glider that had sustained non-life-threatening injuries from a crash, according to Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain.
The Sky Soaring Glider Club is located in McHenry County but the glider crashed into a field southeast of the club in Kane County.
A 61-year-old Hoffman Estates man was piloting the aircraft with a 60-year-old Chicago man, who is a student pilot, in the passenger seat.
The pilot sustained a broken leg and minor head injuries and the student pilot sustained minor head injuries, Hain said.
Both were transported to Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin for treatment.
An investigation shows that the glider was taking off when the slingshot mechanism did not properly catapult the glider high enough.
The glider struck a treetop and crashed into the field, causing major damage to the aircraft, Hain said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was contacted and the glider was released to the Sky Soaring Gliding Club following a brief investigation.