Pilot: Landing in corn required ‘divine intervention’

JOHNSVILLE — The pilot who safely landed his plane Thursday night in a cornfield said he was giving a co-worker’s daughter an introductory flight when he lost power to the plane.

Christopher A. Lyons, 36, of Athens, said in an interview with the News Journal that he had just picked up the co-worker’s daughter at Morrow County Airport and the two were just flying around for fun. The 16-year-old girl is an aspiring pilot, he said Friday.

The Mansfield post of the Highway Patrol said the plane went down Thursday near Huntsman and Algire roads. Lyons said he experienced a loss of power at 7:28 p.m. while flying his 1977 Mooney M20J single-engine airplane.

Lyons was able to maneuver the plane into a cornfield where he then slid the plane to rest on the ground.

Neither he nor his passenger sustained any injuries, the patrol said.

Lyons said he couldn’t restore any fuel to the engine through the emergency procedures.

“The engine was still sputtering but not enough power to maintain altitude or climb,” he said.

He tried to locate the nearest airport but there was none within gliding range.

He has been flying airplanes for four years and flying powered paragliders for 13 years. This is the first time while flying an airplane that he experienced an engine out.

“I was 2,500 feet mean sea level, which was 1,500 feet above ground level as the elevation in our area is approximately 1,000 feet MSL,” he said.

He couldn’t locate any place else to land so he picked out the longest field he could see.

The two had just left the Morrow County Airport at 7:15 p.m.

“The scariest part for me was the first 30 seconds trying to re-establish power,” he said.

“There was divine intervention. Way more luck than skill,” he said.

Describing the impact, he said he made an S-turn over the of top some trees and descended quickly into the bottom of the field where he was able to slow the plane until it could softly land in the corn at stall speed of about 65 mph.

“I wanted to go down like a boat planing on the water,” he said. The pilot opted to not lower his landing gear so the plane could skid softly across the tops of the corn plants.

He said the neighbors came to see if everyone was OK and check out the scene.

Then he and another person called 911. Lyons, a nurse anesthetist at Marion General Hospital, said the plane will go under further evaluation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

He has had the plane for four years, he said.

When asked if the crash will deter him from flying, Lyons said aviation has added so many experiences and memories that he couldn’t see himself without it.

After realizing everyone was safe, Lyons said he joked with his passenger that he had given her “a crash course in aviation.”