A pilot who on November 15 clipped a house while crashing his Cessna 182 (containing a bag of more than 100 prescription pills), left the scene before rescuers arrived, and was later found to have had cocaine, marijuana, opiates and a prescription sedative in his system has been sentenced to 30 days work-release jail time. Sean M. Oskvarek, 45, also earned two years probation at his sentencing last week and he did lose his pilot certificate as part of the federal investigation of the crash. “He admitted having three or four drinks before he got into the plane,” prosecutor Audriana Anderson told Chicago’s Daily Herald, but Oskvarek’s blood alcohol content was only .010 when they caught up with him. The injured Oskvarek had left his 182 inverted in a residential yard east of Brookeridge Air Park in DuPage County, Illinois, and was arrested after police tracked him down and took him to the hospital.
The pilot had faced a possible sentence ranging from probation to two to five years in prison. The sentence he was delivered will allow him to leave DuPage County jail for the month of his incarceration, to go to work. The Herald reported that Dupage State’s attorney, Joseph Birkett, issued a statement that said Oskvarek is “lucky to be alive” and “had he caused injury or death to any innocent people on the ground, he would be looking at a substantial amount of time behind bars.”
