BALTIMORE, Dec. 19—A singleengine plane that had buzzed Memorial Stadium in the closing moments of the Pittsburgh Steelers' 40‐14 playoff victory over the Baltimore Colts today crashed into the almost‐empty upper‐deck stands 15 minutes after the game.
Most of the capacity crowd of 60,020 had left the one‐sided game early. Four persons were reported injured in the accident. The most seriously injured was believed to be Donald Kroner, the 42‐year‐old pilot of the Marylandregistered Piper Cherokee. He was taken unconscious to Union Memorial Hospital with head injuries and lacerations. No other persons were aboard.
A Baltimore policeman was injured when the wing of the plane, painted in the home‐team Colt colors of blue and white, slightly cut him in Section 41. Two other policemen were being treated for inhalation of gasoline fumes.
The plane, which had come close to one of the banks of lights atop the closed end of the stadium in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, had flown in over the field from the open end. Apparently the plane did not have enough acceleration to get over the top of the stands, about 150 feet high, and it crashed into the upper deck, behind one of the goal posts, and flipped around to face the field.