Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a downstate man in his late 80s walked away without injury after the small plane he was piloting went down at the Columbia County Airport July 29, according to Lt. Louis Bray of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. Fred DeFilippis, 87, of Dobbs Ferry was able to exit the plane on his own, Bray said. He was examined at the scene by Greenport Rescue Squad and refused medical treatment. DeFilippis was the pilot and only passenger in the 1978 Cessna 172N single-engine, fixed-wing craft. He was attempting to take off from the airport at about 2 p.m., and as the plane began to climb, it veered to the left and crashed into a wooded area on the east side of the runway. Airport workers removed the plane from the wooded area and towed it back to the hangar, said Nahlon Richards of Richmor Aviation. The Federal Aviation Administration in Albany was contacted and will investigate the crash, Bray said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.