A Challenger II Kit Plane Crashed While Approaching Pennsylvania’s Bradford County Airport, Injuring the Pilot

A single-engine Challenger II kit plane crashed along Liberty Corners Road in Towanda Township, Pennsylvania, shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, as it approached Bradford County Airport to land, The Daily Review reported. The pilot, the only person aboard, went to a local hospital in a Guthrie ambulance.

Airport manager Scott Hauser told the paper the man’s injuries were not life threatening. Hauser could not say why the plane went down.

The crash came one year to the day after another single-engine plane crashed and burned at the same airport. The coverage reviewed for this story draws no connection between the two events.

What responders said

Towanda Fire Chief Bill Sheets told The Daily Review that the plane had a small engine fire, which people put out before firefighters arrived. The pilot was reportedly strapped in and was pulled out by a bystander, and Sheets said he thought the pilot would be all right.

WBRE/WYOU cited county officials in placing the crash on Liberty Corners Road near Airport Road, with reports coming in on Sunday afternoon. WNEP said its crew saw aviation officials at the site, and a passerby told the station the airport was still open and allowing departures.

What a Challenger II is

The Challenger is a kit aircraft from Quad City, of Moline, Illinois, first introduced in 1983. In the kit, the factory handles the hardest mechanical work and the builder covers the frame, finishes the fabric and does the final assembly.

The Challenger II seats two in tandem and has been offered with Rotax engines of 40 to 64 horsepower, or a 60-horsepower HKS. The Daily Review gave the builder as Quad City Ultralight Aircraft Corp., but the Challenger II itself qualifies as experimental amateur-built or light sport, while ultralight status belongs to the single-seat Challenger I with a 22-horsepower engine.

Which category this airframe was registered in has not been reported. If it is amateur-built, the FAA’s definition means the major portion was built by people doing it for their own education or recreation.

How the investigation is likely to run

The Daily Review said the FAA was expected to investigate. The National Transportation Safety Board has not been reported as involved so far.

Whether this counts as an accident in the federal sense depends on the damage and on the injury. Federal rules require death, serious injury or substantial damage, and “non-life threatening” is not the same test: a hospital stay over 48 hours or most bone fractures count as serious.

The airport’s 2023 crash shows how a light aircraft case can run. A Cessna 182Q, N747UC, began running rough about 300 feet above the ground after takeoff from runway 23 on September 30, 2023, then lost all power, and the pilot was unhurt in the forced landing, according to the NTSB final report.

NTSB staff did not travel to that scene, and an FAA inspector examined the wreckage. The report came out on July 24, 2024, and called the power loss undetermined.

The crash a year earlier

On Saturday, November 1, 2025, at about 5:30 p.m., a single-engine plane left the runway at Bradford County Airport, came to rest in a culvert and caught fire, The Daily Review reported, citing the county’s Department of Public Safety. Its pilot, also alone, got out without help and had minor injuries.

The airport closed briefly after that crash, according to MyHometownToday. Bradford County Airport (N27) has a single asphalt runway of 4,301 feet.