Pilot error cause of '07 Cessna crash
BY JOHN ZICK GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

URBANA - Pilot error has been cited as the cause of a plane crash last year in Steuben County that killed a Cornell University professor, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an accident report.

Sergio Servetto, 39, of Ithaca, was killed upon impact when his plane crashed July 24, 2007, near the intersection of county Route 113 and Longwell Road in Urbana, police said. Servetto was the only person on the plane.

According to the NTSB report, Servetto lost control of his single-engine, two-seat Cessna 150 because of "spatial disorientation." Inadequate pre-flight planning, darkness and poor weather conditions contributed, the report said.

Servetto had 99 total hours of flight experience at the time of the crash. Fifty of those hours had been logged 13 years prior to the accident, the report said.

The pilot had just 3.2 hours of flight experience at night.

According to the report, Servetto crashed in rainy conditions after he made a "left 360- degree turn, followed by a descending right 360-turn, which continued until the airplane impacted the terrain."

Servetto was returning from Michigan at the time of the accident. He made two fuel stops before the crash.