An Airtractor crashed that always flies out of my local airport.  (Columbia Co.)  The pilot reported engine problems over Rhinebeck.  The pilot crash landed in a field near the Ferncliff Nursing Home.  The left wing and engine were sheared off.  The pilot escaped with only minor injuries but the Airtractor is totaled.  Luckly no chemicals or aviation gas were released and no fire started.

Yep, they're tragic, even when they happen locally. I recently found out that a close friend of mine who's grandfather was killed in an aircrash at our local airfield a few years back

I had a similar experiance. When I lived in western washington, there was an older gentleman who was an experianced aerobatic pilot, and had won several awards who used to fly out of one of the local airfields. Anyway, during the summer on good days, he would spend hours every week flying all kinds of aerobatic maneauvers over my house all summer long. It was a little pitts special. Beatufull aircraft. Even got to talk to the pilot a few times and admired the aircraft up close several times, but late summer of 2001, we stopped seeing him flying around one week. We were saddened when we read in the paper that he had crashed just a few miles from my house. They think what had happened is that he was doing a maneauver and had a heart attack or something and tried to bail but wasn't able to