Peninsula Daily News news sources
CAMAS — A Port Ludlow couple were unhurt after a crash-landing in their 1954 plane in a cornfield near Camas in southeast Clark County.
David Holt, 70, and his wife, Susan, 66, took off from Jefferson County International Airport at about 10 a.m. Friday headed to Bend, Ore., aboard their refurbished 1954 Beechcraft Tango T34, Camas-Washougal Fire Capt. Brooks Cooper said.
Somewhere over Camas, their engine failed, Cooper said, adding that they contacted emergency personnel just before noon.
Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman said David Holt had advised air traffic control officials in nearby Portland, Ore., that the engine on his 1954 Beechcraft was losing power and he needed to make an emergency landing.
The sheriff’s spokesman said Holt tried to reach Grove Field Airport near Camas — but only had enough power to reach a large cornfield just west of that airport.
Belly landing
He landed the plane on its belly and didn’t extend landing gear, fearing the wheels might catch in the corn furrows.
No one was hurt.
“The pilot did an outstanding job,” Cooper said.
The Federal Aviation Administration went to the crash site to investigate.
The 1954 Beechcraft Tango T34 is a military trainer that the military no longer uses, said Jerry Thuotte, founder of the Port Townsend Aero Museum, which is based at the Jefferson County airport.
Thuotte, whose museum displays planes in use prior to World War II, said he knew Holt as “a local pilot who spends some time at the airport because that’s where his plane is based.”
