‘No reason to freak out;’ Engine malfunction forces emergency plane landing in Greene County field

XENIA — An engine malfunction caused a plane to make an emergency landing in a field near the corner of Old Route 35 and Staley Road in Greene County.

Shortly after 2 p.m., the engine of the plane malfunctioned about halfway through the trip from Bolton Airfield in Columbus, en route to Cincinnati.

News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson spoke with Joseph Robinson, the passenger who was on the single-engine passenger plane.

>> PHOTOS: Plane makes emergency landing in Greene County field

“There was I mean there is no reason to freak out, you know if you freak out then usually the situation always becomes worse so we started just looking through the checklist,” Robinson said.

Robinson told News Center 7′s Robertson that they knew something was wrong when the engine started to lose power. When the engine failed to gain power, the Pilot, Curtis Walt, decided to make the emergency landing.

Once the plane’s front wheel touched down, it caught a little bit of mud and did a nose dive, before it corrected. Walt and Robinson were both uninjured.

Air Traffic Control was trying to direct them to an airport that was located about a mile away from where they landed, but Walt was unaware of the airport and decided the field was the safest option.

“We landed pretty straight so the nose was up about ten degrees and then when finally the front wheel touched down it caught a little bit of mud and that’s when we did the nose dive, the plane corrected and nobody was hurt,” Robinson said.

Robinson said that Walt did a great job remaining calm and going through his checklist of what to do in that situation. He was able to successfully land the plane straight up.

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Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt Richard Milstead told Robertson that no damage was caused to the plane.

“The biggest thing I was concerned about was any fire or leaking fluids or anything like that the plane appeared to be in good condition so once we realized that nothing was really leaking you know and then the next steps were just to get out,” Robinson said.

Once they landed, farmers nearby pulled up in their tractors to check on them. The FAA is investigating what can be done with this plane.

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