Lou Whitmire – Mansfield News Journal
MANSFIELD – The pilot and passenger of a single-engine plane were uninjured after crash landing in a Richland County cornfield Thursday night, according to the Mansfield post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
The crash occurred at 7:58 p.m. when the pilot, Christopher A. Lyons, 36, of Coolville, Ohio, experienced a loss of power while flying his 1977 Lycoming fixed-wing single-engine airplane, according to a news release from the patrol Friday morning.
Lyons was able to maneuver the plane into a cornfield near Huntsman and Algire roads in Perry Township where he then slid the plane to rest on the ground, according to the patrol.
He was accompanied by a 16-year-old female passenger. Neither the pilot nor passenger sustained any injuries, the patrol said.
The highway patrol’s Mansfield post is investigating the crash and said the Federal Aviation Administration has been notified and will complete a thorough investigation.
Perry Township Fire and EMS assisted at the scene, according to the patrol.
Friday morning, an investigator from the FAA was at the scene. He would not say where the pilot had taken off from on his flight. An email request to the FAA press office was not immediately returned Friday not was a call to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The patrol had no further information.
Three neighbor children on Huntsman Road Friday said they heard the sound of a plane scraping something, like trees, but it was in the cornfield just off Algire Road.
Siblings Sarah Ann, Ervin and David Yoder said they walked over to the scene Thursday night and added that the crash landing caused a ruckus.
