Fittipaldi Is Injured in Crash of Small Plane

Racing champion Emerson Fittipaldi fractured his lower back when the small plane he was piloting from his family citrus farm plunged 300 feet into a swamp.

The 50-year-old racer, one of Brazil’s most revered athletes and a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was in stable condition but may need surgery. His 6-year-old son, Luca, the only other person on the plane, received minor scratches.

The ultralight plane crashed Sunday in Araraquara, a citrus-growing region 220 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.

Fittipaldi told doctors the plane’s motor stalled, said Dr. Luiz Roberto Neves, clinical director at Sao Paulo Hospital in Araraquara.

“It wasn’t a forced landing. It was a crash,” Neves said. “The swamp saved them. If they had fallen on solid ground, they surely would have been killed.”

Fittipaldi and his son took off in the morning from Araraquara. When they failed to return by nightfall, police were called and a search began.

The two were found late Sunday night and taken to the hospital, where doctors immobilized Fittipaldi’s neck.

The hospital’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Joao Capellari, said Fittipaldi fractured the second vertebra in the lumbar region.

“Depending on the extent of the damage, he may have to undergo surgery,” the doctor said, adding that Fittipaldi complained of a loss of sensitivity in his left leg.

Fittipaldi and his son were transferred Monday to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital in a jet equipped with a portable intensive care unit.

Fittipaldi, driving for Roger Penske, suffered a broken neck and other injuries in an accident during the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway in 1996. He said at the time he thought his racing days were over, then said later he might try a comeback.

He hasn’t raced since, however. Fittipaldi is a two-time Formula One champion, a two-time winner of the Indy 500 and he won CART’s national title in 1989.