CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : BAKERSFIELD : Pilot Dusting Crops Crashes in Field

A crop duster pilot was injured when his plane backfired and lost power before crashing into a western Kern County field, authorities said. Witnesses driving along nearby Interstate 5 rushed to the plane and pulled the pilot from the burning wreckage, said sheriff’s spokesman Richard Dixon. The pilot, Ted Ingram, 55, of Bakersfield, was spraying a tomato crop shortly after dawn when the plane went down near Seventh Standard Road, Dixon said. Ingram was hospitalized for burns, smoke inhalation and abrasions, a Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said. He is listed in stable condition.