A vintage single-engine plane made an unplanned stop in a farmer's field near Deer Road in the Town of Addison on Saturday after its engine failed mid-flight, sending the pilot scrambling to find a safe place to put it down. The 67-year-old Milwaukee pilot and his adult male passenger walked away without injury, even after the aircraft's left wing clipped the ground during a sharp evasive turn.
The aircraft was a 1941 Aeronca Super Chief, a fabric-covered plane that came down in a field near the 5100 block of Deer Road, according to Washington County Insider. The chain of events started when Milwaukee Air Traffic Control reached out to the Washington County Sheriff's Office after Madison Approach picked up a Mayday call from the pilot reporting engine failure.
The pilot and passenger had started their day far from Addison. They departed Cindy Guntly Memorial Airport in Racine County at approximately 9 a.m. Saturday, made a brief stop at Hartford Municipal Airport, then continued on to Oshkosh, where the plane landed to refuel. It was on the return trip to Racine County that the engine gave out.
A Mayday Call and a Split-Second Decision
Once the engine failed, the pilot issued the Mayday call and began gliding the aircraft toward the ground, scanning for anywhere flat enough to land. The sheriff's office said the pilot had even told a shift commander, while still airborne, to look down and help spot a good landing location.
The pilot identified a suitable field and guided the plane in, a maneuver officials credited with helping prevent injuries to both men onboard. But the approach wasn't clean: to avoid going over an embankment, the pilot made a sharp turn, and during that maneuver the aircraft's left wing struck the ground and sustained damage.
Substantial Damage, No Injuries
Despite the wing strike, neither occupant was hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board has classified the incident as a substantial-damage aircraft accident because of the wing damage, even though the plane otherwise made it down in one piece. The sheriff's office said the pilot's preparedness and decision-making were key factors in the safe outcome.
The Federal Aviation Administration was expected to inspect the aircraft Sunday. Once that inspection wraps up, arrangements for removing the aircraft from the field will follow.
Not an Isolated Scare in the Skies
Engine trouble forcing small aircraft into improvised landings isn't unheard of in the region. Just last month, chippewa.com reported that a Glasair I RG piloted by a 62-year-old Byron resident lost engine power over Winona County and was forced to land on a roadway. And in September, Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany survived his own emergency landing when his plane went down in Lake Wausau, an incident CNN covered in detail.
The Aeronca Super Chief itself is a piece of aviation history. Aeronca built more than 17,000 aircraft over the years, including the C-3, the Super Chief, and the popular Champ, according to General Aviation News. That decades-old design held together well enough Saturday to bring both men home safely, even with a damaged wing and a hard landing far from any runway.
