Pilot in Waupaca County plane crash held on domestic charges

TOWN OF WAUPACA - The Neenah man who was severely injured when he crashed a plane in a Waupaca County cornfield late Friday night was wanted on domestic abuse-related charges, according to the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Oshkosh Police Department went to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh about 9:30 p.m. Friday in an attempt to arrest the 47-year-old man in connection with an Aug. 13 incident in Clayton, the Sheriff ’s Department said in a statement Saturday.

He disregarded instructions from the air traffic control tower when he took off. In doing so, he nearly collided with an Oshkosh police squad car, according to the statement.

The department was attempting to arrest him on charges of violating a domestic abuse restraining order, intimidating a victim and disorderly conduct.

Over the course of the 18 days since the incident, authorities had checked locations he was known to frequent. That included the hangar space at the airport, where he kept his plane, according to the sheriff ’s department.

The air traffic control tower was aware the sheriff ’s department had been looking for him.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Saturday that the man was piloting a Beechcraft BE95. The Waupaca Fire Department pulled the pilot from the six-passenger, twin-propeller plane.

The man, who was the lone occupant of the plane, was flown to ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah with severe injuries, the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Department said.