 Anna Erickson, WBT News. Pilot from Morganton hospitalized this morning after his ultralight plane crashed Monday in Burke County. Happened around 9 yesterday morning near Mountain Shadows Drive, south of Morganton. Highway Patrol says the plane struck several trees and went down into the woods after taking off from a private airfield. Officers cut the pilot, 45-year-old Christopher Short, out of the wreckage. He was flown to a hospital in Asheville. He's expected to survive.