MANATEE -- The crash of a small experimental airplane in a cow pasture just off U.S. 41 near the border of Hillsborough and Manatee counties is the area's fourth in less than a month.

The crash occurred early Sunday and left the pilot hospitalized.

The crash occurred during an emergency landing sometime before 9:30 a.m., according to a report from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, which responded to the scene along with units from Manatee County.

The report states that the pilot, whose age is being reported by Bay News 9 as 82, told rescue workers after his emergency landing that the aircraft's engine stalled shortly after take off.

The pilot was the only person on board the plane and there was no fuel spill or fire, according to the report.

The emergency rescue report states that the pilot was airlifted to Blake Medical Center with critical injuries.

The pilot was alert andtalking before taken to thehospital and said he reached 300 feet before noticing aproblem, BayNews 9 reported.

The crash site is a cow pasture at 6528 U.S. 41, Bay News 9 reported.

On New Year's Eve, pilot James Clendenen, 82, died instantlywhen his ultralight aircraft crashed off Buckeye Road and Grass Farm Road in northern Manatee County.

On Jan. 12, pilot John Ardoyno from Wisconsin was killed in the crash of a Seawind 3000 aircraft, a single-engine, four-seat amphibian that went down on the New College of Florida campus. The passenger, William S. Jackson, from Michigan, died several days later from his severe burns.

On Jan. 20, a crash destroyed an ultralight aircraft in the 3200 block of Mendoza Road, but Randy R. Roman, the 47-year-old pilot was uninjured.

Roman was able to walk away from the crash that destroyed his Blue Rotax 447 Ultra-Light aircraft moments after takeoff from a grass strip on Mendoza Road.

Roman, a welder who has flown various aircraft since he was 14 years old, said the corrosive effects of ethanol in his fuel caused a bit of the fuel cap to flake off into the tank and plug a fuel line, the Herald previously reported.

Roman's ultralight lost power, clipping tree tops on the south side of the 3200 block of Mendoza Road and crashing on the north side of Mendoza, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.