A small, single-engine airplane lost engine power while approaching Akron-Canton Airport Saturday night and crash-landed in a parking lot at the Metallus steel plant in Perry Township, clipping a concrete pole before coming to a stop. Both people aboard walked away without injury.
The aircraft, a fixed-wing Zenith CH650B, went down at approximately 8:38 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, according to jordanmiller.news, though a separate account from Cleveland 19 places the response time at 8:44 p.m. The plane came down in the lower lot of the Metallus facility at 4748 Navarre Road SW, the steel plant where it eventually stopped after striking the pole.
The pilot, identified as Nathaniel Overly, and passenger Jason Overly, both of East Sparta, were not injured, per jordanmiller.news. The aircraft experienced engine failure while in flight, forcing the pilot to make the emergency landing in the plant's lower parking lot rather than continuing on to Akron-Canton Airport. The plane sustained damage during the landing, including to its landing gear, after striking the concrete pole, according to Cleveland 19.
Pilot Had Priority Clearance Before Engine Trouble
Before the engine failure forced the detour, the aircraft had been cleared for final approach and granted priority to land, jordanmiller.news reported. That clearance suggests air traffic controllers were already aware something was amiss in the moments before the pilot set the plane down short of the runway. As WKYC also reported, the plane went down around 8:38 p.m. Saturday night, matching the stronger account of the timeline.
Emergency crews from Perry Township's police and fire departments responded to the scene, and Metallus's own security team assisted as well, according to WKYC's reporting. No injuries were reported among plant personnel or the two people aboard the aircraft, consistent across all accounts of the incident.
Multiple Agencies Now Investigating
The Ohio State Highway Patrol's Canton Post is leading the investigation into what caused the emergency landing, with assistance from Perry Township police and Metallus security personnel on site, the station notes. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were also notified and are expected to conduct their own separate investigations into the incident.
It remains unclear what ultimately caused the engine failure, and none of the available reporting has addressed the extent of damage to the plant's parking lot infrastructure or whether the aircraft has since been removed from the property. For now, residents of Perry Township are left with a dramatic scene from the weekend — a small plane resting in a steel plant's lot — and two shaken but unhurt people who can tell the story of how close it came to being far worse.
