Plane Crash Update

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ALCORN COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A couple has a close call after their plane falls out of the sky. Federal Investigators want to know why an engine failed on a small plane that crash landed in southern Alcorn county Friday.

The Cessna 150 wound up on its roof after its pilot tried to make an emergency landing in this bean field near County Road 518 in the Hinkle Community. Ron Noland and his wife Cindy had just purchased the plane and had taken off from Atlanta bound for Memphis when it developed engine trouble around 4:30 Friday afternoon. Gary Yancy is Chief of the Pisgah Volunteer Fire Department and was the first official on the scene.

 “We received the call around 5:00p.m. We responded to it. We found that the occupants were okay. They were not injured. We checked to be certain that the plane was secure, that the fuel and the battery power had been cut off.”

 Yancey said, Noland told him the engine had failed at 4500 feet and he was fortunate to glide the plane to the bean field.

  “I think the pilot made a good judgement call considering the area around there. There were no power lines to worry about. A soy bean field probably padded him somewhat when he finally landed and obviously it probably helped him when it finally flipped over.”

The next step of  is to get the plane out of the bean field and to an airport where federal investigators can examine it.

According to Yancey,  “They will be looking at this to try to determine just what caused this plane to have the problem that it did. And I’m certain that the owner of the plane would be equally interesting in finding out just what happened.”

WCBI news talked to Ron Noland via cell phone and he said he did not wish to do an on-camera interview at this time. He did indicate that he wants to be there when the plane is removed from the crash site.

Authorities will be retrieving the plane out of the field Monday or Tuesday. Investigator will be conducting an investigation into cause of the accident.