MARK SMITH / PVT A Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue photographer documents the wreckage of the single-engine plane that crashed Friday morning. Advertisement

A local pilot was seriously injured when the small plane he was trying to land at the primitive Valley View Air Strip off Blosser Ranch Road crashed just short of the runway Friday morning.

Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Lewis said the man was "pretty banged up" and semi-conscious when he was pulled from the wreckage of his single-engine Cessna 150 shortly after 8:30 a.m.

According to Federal Aviation Administration representative Ron Williams, Monday the unidentified man remained in a coma in the intensive care unit at a Las Vegas medical center.

Williams said the pilot had taken off in a southerly direction from the gravel runway and then tried to turn to re-land. Under the circumstance, however, the engine stalled. "There's no doubt about that," Williams said.

What sort of problem may have led the pilot to turn back toward the strip is unknown. Williams said the plane was built in 1966.

The pilot almost made it to a safe landing, however, crashing just south of Blosser Ranch Road above its intersection with Hoffman Place.

Just yards short of the strip, the landing gear caught a mound of earth, which flipped the plane forward onto the roof of the cabin. The impact as it came to rest snapped the tail assembly. There was no fire. No one other than the pilot was hurt.

Lewis said the FAA moved the plane to a secure location where it could begin a probe into the event. He stressed that the strip involved was not Calvada Air Park, which is farther north of the runway from which the plane took off.