CENTER — An antique plane will return to its Oregon home on land instead of the air this week after an emergency landing in a hayfield.
The pilot was unhurt, but the plane struck a cow, which had to be destroyed because of a broken leg.
The damaged aircraft has remained in the field off Eaglemont Road since the Sunday afternoon landing.
It will make the remainder of the trip from Orcas Island to Oregon on a trailer.
The pilot, Gordon Richardson, 63, was heading home from the San Juan Islands when the engine on the antique pontoon plane he was piloting quit about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
He glided it to the hayfield, but the momentum of the plane ran it through a barbed-wire fence and at the cow. The impact tore off the right pontoon of the plane and caused damage to the right wing.
The full report appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition. Click onto “Subscribe” to order your PDN delivered to your home or office.
