Updated: 2 critically injured when plane crashes in Pittsfield Township back yard

Pittsfield Township Fire Chief Sean Gleason said firefighters freed a man who piloted the plane and a woman from the wreckage after the plane crashed about 11:45 in the 7000 block of Warner Road. The victims live in the Saline area, he said. Deputy Police Chief Gordy Schick said they are husband and wife.

Huron Valley Ambulance took the victims to the hospital. They were in critical condition said Joyce Williams, ambulance service spokeswoman.

The plane crashed in the back yard of Jan Haupt's home, about an eighth of a mile east of Warner Road. Haupt was in her kitchen just before the plane crashed. "I looked up and saw a shadow come across the skylight," she said. She said she could not hear any noise from the engine.

She went outside and saw the neon green plane crashed in her back yard about 100 feet from her house. She ran up to the plane and found the pilot unconscious, and the passenger alert but badly injured and obviously in pain. The pilot had regained consciousness by the time paramedics arrived, Haupt said.

Gleason did not know the cause of the crash. The Federal Aviation Authority was en route to investigate it, he said.

The plane was mostly intact after the crash, although the wheels and a few other pieces came off, Gleason said. The crash caused extensive damage to the front end, he said. There was no fire.

Firefighters worked for about 15 minutes to free the couple, Gleason said,

It was the second plane crash in less than two months in the area. A single-engine plane crashed April 5 at the Ann Arbor Municipal airport about 3 miles to the northwest of the site of today's crash.

FAA records show the plane is an Aeros Sky Ranger II, a fixed-wing experimental aircraft. The manufacturer is Aeros LTD/Skyranger Aircraft Co. It is registered to an address on Partridge Way in Pittsfield Township, not far from the crash site. Records show the plane was manufactured in 2006.

The plane departed Friday morning from the Ann Arbor airport, said Tony Molinaro, spokesman from the FAA's Great Lakes Region in Chicago. He said the circumstances of the crash were unknown and no further information would be available until the FAA completes its investigation. The aircraft is a home-built plane constructed from a kit, he said.

The pilot did not file a flight plan with the FAA, and one is not required for a plane of this type, he said. He did know what time the plane departed from the airport.

AnnArbor.com reporter Amy Biolchini contributed to this report.

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