Plane makes emergency landing near Grove Field

A pilot and his passenger escaped injury today when their small plane completed an emergency landing in a corn field west of Grove Field Airport north of Camas.

At 11:57 a.m., emergency personnel responded to the aircraft, which was down at Northeast 252nd Avenue and Fifth Street. The pilot, David Holt, 70, of Port Ludlow, Wash., had been in contact with the Portland control tower and advised that his 1954 Beechcraft airplane was having engine trouble and he would be attempting an emergency landing.

According to a press release from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, when emergency crews arrived, Holt and his passenger, wife Susan Holt, 66, were up and walking around the grounded aircraft. Neither was injured in the landing.

David Holt told responders that he and his wife were flying from Port Ludlow to Bend, Ore., when the plane’s engine began to lose power. Holt attempted to fly into Grove field to land, but without adequate power he decided instead to put the plane down in the cornfield.

Holt explained that he decided to land the plane on its belly. He didn’t extend the aircraft landing gear, fearing the plane’s wheels might catch in the corn furrows.

FAA officials are enroute to the scene to conduct an investigation prior to the plane’s removal from the corn field.