No Injuries Reported In Off-Airport Emergency Landing

One of the teams participating in the Air Race Classic when down Wednesday in a hayfield in Polk County, MO ... but both occupants of the airplane were uninjured in the off-airport emergency landing.

The Warrensburg (MO) Daily Star-Journal reports that the Cessna 182 developed engine problems during the race. Pilot Susan Larson, 65, of Santa Fe, NM called 911 after the emergency landing. A Missouri state trooper told the paper that she and co-pilot Amy Ecclesine, 60 of Berkeley, CA were uninjured and refused transportation to a hospital.

Witnesses said that they saw the plane circling after an engine failure. The owner of the land tracked them down and found them to be OK. The accident site was shielded from the nearest road by a line of trees, and the women would not let any media near the plane. They told the Missouri State Highway Patrol it could not share its photographs of the scene.

According to the Air Race Classic website, Larson is a commercial pilot in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. She is a CFI with a tailwheel endorsement and 3,850 hours in her logbook.

Ecclesine is a single-engine airplane, land private pilot with 700 hours to her credit.

The Air Race Classic says that there has never been a fatal accident in its 40-year run.

FMI: www.airraceclassic.org