Friday, July 13th, 2018
Crop duster makes forced landing
By Ed Gebert
Photo by Ryan Snyder/The Daily Standard
Emergency responders check out a crop-dusting plane after the pilot made an emergency landing in a Blackcreek Township soybean field. The pilot was not injured and the aircraft sustained minimal damage.
BLACKCREEK TOWNSHIP - A pilot spraying fungicide on a soybean field Thursday afternoon was unharmed after his plane experienced engine failure, causing him to make an emergency landing in a northwestern Mercer County field.
According to a news release from the Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the 1979 Cessna A188B was piloted by Roger Trump, 61, Greenville.
Trump was spraying the fungicide Triva Pro on a field when the incident occurred, Mercer County Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Robbins said this morning. Trump dumped the remainder of his load, which he estimated to be about 100 gallons, on a nearby cornfield before making the emergency landing.
Robbins told the newspaper that the owner of the cornfield was contacted and expressed no concern with the dumped chemicals in his field.
The aircraft sustained minimal damage, according to the patrol's release. The crash remains under investigation. The Federal Aviation Agency has been contacted and will send an investigator to the scene.
Troopers were assisted by the Mercer County Sheriff's Office, Mercer County EMA and the Rockford Fire Department.
