A crop dusting agricultural aircraft crashed Friday morning in southwestern Jackson County, and the pilot was able to extricate himself and walk away from the crash, Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse said.
The Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office received a report of the crash just east of Emmett at 11:52 a.m., Morse said.
The crash happened a half-mile north of 142nd Road, about 100 yards west of A4 Road, and about a half-mile east of the Pottawatomie County line.
Morse said witnesses saw the plane go down and heard the crash, adding the plane hit a hay meadow, crashed into a cluster of trees and flipped onto its top.
Fire officials from Emmett and Hoyt, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol responded to the scene.
Highway patrol Trooper Ray Ramirez identified the pilot as Curt Strathman, 27, of Axtell. Strathman was treated at St. Marys Community Hospital and later released, Ramirez said.
Morse said it appeared the aircraft had been traveling west and was applying chemicals to a cornfield to the east. Ramirez said the plane was spraying an insecticide and a fungicide before it crashed.
The pilot told a highway patrol trooper he didn’t know why the plane crashed, Ramirez said.
The yellow bi-wing crop duster plane was doing work on behalf of Nemaha County co-op, Morse said, and was privately owned.
Morse said the pilot was the lone passenger in the plane. After getting out of the plane, Morse said, the pilot made his way to a vehicle that was passing by and picked him up.
The vehicle was met by Pottawatomie County ambulances as it was driving from the scene, and the pilot’s condition was assessed, Morse said.
Ramirez said the crash investigation had been turned over to the FAA.
Source: http://cjonline.com
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