The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office released more information regarding the pilot of the airplane that crashed at 11:20 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31.
The crash occurred in a cornfield on Harrington Road in Waupaca.
The pilot, 47-year-old Andrei Biesinger, of Oshkosh, was taken by ambulance to Waupaca Airport and then airlifted to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah with severe, but non-life-threatening injuries.
At 9:30 p.m. Friday, Winnebago County deputies and Oshkosh police responded to Wittman Airport in Oshkosh in an attempt to arrest Biesinger, who had been involved in a domestic abuse incident Aug. 13 in the town of Clayton.
He was charged on Aug. 23 in Winnebago County with violating a restraining order, criminal damage to property, theft and disorderly conduct as acts of domestic abuse.
Deputies had been searching for Biesinger for more than two weeks. They had visited Biesinger’s hangar space near Wittman Airport, where Biesinger keeps his plane, several times and notified staff in the tower.
Because of their repeated attempts to locate Biesinger at the hangar, tower staff were aware that the deputies were looking for Biesinger.
Friday night, when Biesinger tried to get clearance for take-off, airport tower officials instructed him to hold.
Instead, Biesinger took off, nearly colliding with an Oshkosh police car, then crashed the plane in Waupaca.