UPDATE: Pilot identified in airplane crash north of Camas

A couple from Port Ludlow escaped injury Friday afternoon when the aircraft they were in crash-landed southwest of Grove Field north of Camas.

David Holt, 70, and his wife, Susan, 66, left Port Ludlow about 10 a.m. Friday headed to Bend aboard their refurbished 1954 Beachcraft Tango T34, a plane used in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, said Camas-Washougal Fire Capt. Brooks Cooper.

Somewhere over Camas, however, their engine failed, Cooper said, and they contacted emergency personnel just before noon.

The pilot safely landed the plane on its belly in a corn field at Northeast 252nd Avenue and Northeast 5th Street.

“The pilot did an outstanding job,” Cooper said.

David Holt said they were flying from Port Ludlow, a small community in Jefferson County near the Olympic National Forest, to Bend, Ore. when the engine began to fail. He attempted to land in Grove Field, but without adequate power, put the plane down in the nearby cornfield instead.

He landed the plane on its belly and didn’t extend landing gear, fearing the wheels might catch in the corn furrows.

The Federal Aviation Administration went to the crash site to investigate.