MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — A plane carrying a federal inmate crashed at the Geauga County Airport on Wednesday morning.
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contacted the Geauga County Sheriff's office on Wednesday morning regarding a distress call from a plane that made an emergency landing at the Geauga County Airport, located at 15421 Old State Road in Middlefield.
The landing occurred at approximately 9 a.m.
The plane was traveling from Youngstown to Detroit and carrying four law enforcement officers with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the pilot, and an inmate from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio.
The plane sustained minor damage in the crash. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that its four staff members and the inmate were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
The Geauga County Sheriff's Office said that the prisoner was picked up and taken back to Youngstown.
The crash is believed to have occurred when the eight-passenger, twin-engine plane experienced an engine failure. Unable to complete a safe landing on the airport's runway due to tailwind, the plane proceeded to slide 100-200 yards to the east.
"It looks pretty dramatic, but this is a pretty good off field place for the aircraft to end up," said Capt. Tony Yeropoli of the Middlefield Fire Department. "The damage is mostly cosmetic. Everybody was in a seat with a seatbelt, that’s why the regulations are in place. Not terribly surprised that everybody walked away from this."
Yeropoli noted that Wednesday's emergency landing is just one of several recent incidents at Geauga County Airport.
"Generally, the airport is a pretty safe place, but in the last three months we've had two incidents here in our fire district with aircraft down," he told 3News.
Bob Hostetler lives across the street from the back of the airport.
“There’s been a glider that crashed into my pine tree, through my yard, and it landed across the street. There was another single prop plane that took off, lost power, but instead of stopping in the field, he kept trying to go and went across the main road and landed in my yard again. So yeah, I’m sort of a little bit of a target for some of them," Hostetler noted. "The main thing is damage to property and life and I'm glad nobody did get hurt."
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