A plane sits upside down in the McKenzie River after making an emergency landing near the Bellinger boat landing.
WALTERVILLE — A Texas man escaped injury Saturday when his biplane overturned in the McKenzie River after he made an emergency landing on the waterway.
John Proctor, 65, was flying a biplane equipped with floats when he landed on the river near the Bellinger boat landing just before 8 a.m. According to a Lane County Sheriff’s Office report, he was heading for Detroit Lake but had to look for an alternate landing site because of fog.
He landed in the river but one of the pontoon floats apparently struck submerged debris and was damaged. The plane then flipped forward and ended up on its top.
People along the river saw Proctor standing on the tail end of the plane above the water and called 911. A sheriff’s office search and rescue boat was able to reach the plane and get him.
The report said Proctor, of Rosebud, Texas, is a former Oregon resident who returned to visit the area.
Capt. Bill Thompson of the sheriff’s office said the plane had fuel but was getting low when Proctor decided to land in the McKenzie and wait for the weather to improve.
“It probably would have went OK if he hadn’t hit a little snag,” Thompson said.
The plane is a 1990 Siewert Irving single-engine biplane. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board both were notified of the incident, and the FAA is expected to do a follow-up investigation.
Source: http://www.registerguard.com
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