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Wednesday, Jul. 29, 2009

Plane crash-lands in Woodford Co.; police say no injuries

Two people walked away after the pilot crash-landed a small airplane, a single-engine 1975 Cessna 150M, on a hillside 3 miles northwest of Lexington on Tuesday afternoon.

Officer Pat Melton of the Versailles Police Department said officers were notified at 4:24 p.m. that there was a plane down on Brittany Farms, 1580 Pisgah Road.

The two men were not injured, Melton said.

The pilot of the plane was Michael Holbrook of Richmond, and the passenger was Larry Lunsford of Richmond, said Lunsford's daughter, Shea Mahoney.

Mahoney said her father was fine. "He just said it was scary," she said.

The plane's nose and front landing gear were damaged, and the windshield was broken when the plane crashed through a fence.

Melton said the men had flown from Lexington to Owensboro and were returning to Lexington when the plane went down on a hillside in a field about 21/2 miles from the runway at Blue Grass Airport.

Kathleen Bergen, communications manager for the Federal Aviation Administration's southern region, said the pilot reported having engine problems when the plane was about 6 miles out.

Tuesday's crash was the second in Woodford County this year. In March, a small plane crashed near Delaney Ferry Road. That crash killed the pilot, Dr. Gary Keith Bryson, a Bowling Green obstetrician/gynecologist.

FAA officials arrived on the scene Tuesday night and are investigating, Melton said.

He said the plane's wings will be removed Wednesday so that the plane can be loaded onto a trailer and moved off the farm.

According to the FAA Registry, the four-cycle plane is owned by Lexington Flying Club Inc.

Mike Proctor, president of the flying club, said the pilot told him the engine "sputtered and then quit completely." They crashed into a wire-and-plank fence.

"When you just have one engine and it cuts out, then the airplane turns into a glider," Proctor said. "The pilot tried to land in the field, and it was too short to give him enough time to stop."

The Lexington Flying Club has four other planes; all of those are four-seaters, Proctor said. This plane was insured for $20,000, he said.

"Well, we'll scramble to get a replacement airplane — summer is the busiest season — but that is secondary to the fact that no one was hurt," Proctor said.