Plane flips during emergency landing. No one was injured.
By: Matthew Armstrong
A small two-seater airplane headed for Princeton Airport crashed Sunday in a field near Eleanor Drive in South Brunswick. The pilot and passenger were able to walk away with minor injuries.
Franklin residents Scott Meister, 42, who was piloting the 1941 Porterfield airplane, and passenger Debra Danielson, 40, departed from Montauk, N.Y. They were on their way to Princeton Airport in Montgomery when they began having engine trouble, said Patrol Officer Jim Ryan of the South Brunswick Police Department.
Mr. Meister repeatedly had to restart the engine but it continued to fail. Mr. Meister told police afterward he realized the plane was not going to make it to the airport so he turned back around to attempt an emergency landing in a field. Mr. Meister dumped the remainder of the fuel from the airplane to avoid a possible explosion on impact, said Officer Ryan.
The plane landed on the wet field, traveling about 20 yards before the wheels got caught in a patch of mud causing the plane to flip over onto its roof.
Mr. Meister and Ms. Danielson walked away from the plane but were taken by Kendall Park First Aid Squad to The Medical Center at Princeton to check slight neck and back pain. They were released shortly afterward Sunday.
Mr. Meister, who has more than 20 years of flying experience, told police that he didn’t know what caused the engine problems. The Aeronautics Division of the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the accident.
Residents along Dickinson Road and the Timber Pond housing development noticed the plane circling the area at about 4:50 p.m. The plane circled the open field for about five minutes while the engine continued to sputter, before attempting to land, said Rochelle Gerszberg, a resident who saw the plane from her house.
"It was losing altitude fast," said Ms. Gerszberg. "It was circling like it was looking for a place to land. It was definitely an amazing thing to see," said Ms. Gerszberg.