Student pilot killed after crashing small plane into power lines near West Houston Airport, DPS says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A pilot was killed after a single-engine aircraft flew into power lines and crash-landed upside down near the West Houston Airport, according to DPS.

Investigators say the deadly accident happened at about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday in the 17100 block of Groschke.
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Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed that one person died in the crash.

"(The pilot) left the airport and made some circles around the airport, and as it was coming back to land, he flew into some power lines. Once he got tangled up in the power lines, the plane crash-landed. He landed upside down to the immediate right of Groschke Road," Richard Standifer, with Texas DPS, said.

DPS later identified the victim as Sherod Coleman, which the FAA website shows was a student pilot.

Gonzalez said the crash knocked out the power for a number of people in the area.


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CenterPoint Energy showed nearly 2,000 customers without power at one point. At about 2 p.m., the power company's data showed 27 customers experiencing outages.

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