This plane crash landed in a corn field near Plymouth.
A student pilot and instructor from the Des Moines area escaped injury when their single-engine Piper Tomahawk airplane crash into a farm field just south of the Cerro Gordo and Worth County line west of Plymouth at about 12:30 this afternoon.
Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals says they were called to the crash in a seed corn field farmed by Steve Smith.
He says it was a small single-engine aircraft was occupied by a flight instructor and a student that experienced engine trouble in the area and chose the field to land their plane. Pals says they were lucky to crash in a rural area.
“They were were trying to make it to the airport but they didn’t have enough height, well the engine quit so they didn’t have any choice but to put it down,” Pals says.
He says it was the “best case scenario” that they walked away with just a few minor bumps and scrapes. The pilot and instructor, were identified as 65-year-old Tom Ballard of Granger and 27-year-old Geoffrey Tayner of Johnston.
Both refused to make comments about the crash at the scene.
By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City
