Feb 9, 2008 2:58 pm US/Central
Searchers Find Missing Plane In Austin; Pilot Dead
AUSTIN, Minn. (AP) ―
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The Cessna 140 last made contact with the FAA's Minneapolis center at 12:50 a.m. Saturday when it was flying near Rochester.
CBS
A pilot was found dead Saturday after a single-engine plane crashed in a field near this southern Minnesota town, the FAA said.
The pilot was not immediately identified. FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said investigators believe the pilot was the only person on the Cessna 140.
The plane was flying from New Richmond, Wisc., to Fulton, Mo., with a stopover planned in Oskaloosa, Iowa. It went missing shortly after making contact with the FAA's Minneapolis center at about 12:50 a.m., when it was flying over the Rochester area.
About 50 members of the Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol started a ground search at about 2 a.m., focused on areas south of Rochester.
The plane was ultimately found just outside Grand Meadow, which is about 25 miles southwest of Rochester.
The Austin Daily Herald reported that the plane's wreckage was first spotted at about 9 a.m. by Larry Churchill and his son, Brian, who live nearby. They saw an object in the field, which they said was initially difficult to identify because of foggy conditions.
"Then we saw a wing," Brian Churchill told the newspaper. "My dad went out there and saw a body."
The Churchills called 911, and the Mower County Sheriff's Department was first to respond to the scene, according to the newspaper report.
Cory said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate. She said there was no immediate indication of what caused the crash, and said she didn't know what weather conditions were at the time.
"We still have a lot of questions at this stage," Cory said.
An online search of the plane's tail number indicated that it was owned by a Stillwater, Minn., man. Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi said the identity of the pilot would be released on Sunday.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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