Plane crashes in Wellsville

<strong>WELLSVILLE –</strong> Five passengers walked away from a plane crash in Wellsville, Saturday afternoon. The crash occurred around 1:40 P.M., in a field near 2950 West Highway 101. The pilot of the plane was attempting an emergency landing, after the plane’s engine lost power.  As the plane touched down in a field, the front wheel broke off, causing it to flip over on its top.

Lieutenant Brian Locke, with the Cache County Sheriff’s office said that cold weather appears to be the cause. “The plane started experiencing some icing in the carburetor,” said Locke. “When [the pilot] went to adjust the carburetor to de-ice it, he thinks that a lot of the ice just broke loose and the engine just cut off completely.” Locke added, “at that particular point he started looking for a place to land.”

The plane was a Cesena 175, piloted by Lynn Goodsell of Newton.  Lieutenant Locke said the plane was valued around $39,000 and is a total lose. The passengers were all friends celebrating a birthday.  No one had any injuries.  One of the passengers, a seventh-month-old baby was taken to Logan Regional Hospital as a precaution.

Goodsell said he was south of Sherwood Hills when the engine lost power. He was able to glide for about five minutes trying to find a safe place to land.  “The main thing going through my mind was finding a place to put the plane down,” said Goodsell. He added, “I was looking for roads or someplace clear of snow to put it down but there just wasn’t anywhere. So all I could do was pick a field.”

Goodsell said his passengers all remained calm after he told them he wasn’t going to be able to return to the Logan Cache Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating. 

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