Saturday update: Fatal plane crash west of U.S. 231 east of Otterbein

Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier
Updated ·1 min read
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Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office sports utility vehicles got stuck in the mud in the field north of Tippecanoe County Road 600 North west of U.S. 231. The deputies were trying to reach a small plane crash between County Roads 600 North and 750 North. The plane's pilot is dead.
Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office sports utility vehicles got stuck in the mud in the field north of Tippecanoe County Road 600 North west of U.S. 231. The deputies were trying to reach a small plane crash between County Roads 600 North and 750 North. The plane's pilot is dead.

OTTERBEIN, Ind. — The pilot of a Purdue Aviation single-engine plane died Thursday when the aircraft crashed in a rural farm field east of Otterbein, according to Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello.

The plane was removed from the ground Saturday, and the pilot extricated from the wreckage, Costello said. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

Investigators have a presumptive identification of the pilot, but the coroner's office will compare the pilot's DNA to family members of the presumptive pilot, Costello said of the efforts to positively ID the person.

Tippecanoe County sheriff's Chief Deputy Terry Ruley said Saturday that investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived on scene about 9 a.m. Saturday.

The plane was last seen about 8 p.m. Thursday, and it wasn't until about 3:30 p.m. Friday that it was reported as missing, Ruley said on Friday.

The plane was found crashed into a field between Tippecanoe County Roads 600 North and 750 North, west of U.S. 231.

Tippecanoe County sheriff's Lt. Greg Frantz said Friday that they believed one person died in the crash.

Initially, deputies, firefighters and paramedics on Friday had trouble reaching the crash scene.

Deputies, a paramedic with Tippecanoe Emergency Ambulance Service, and a firefighter in a pickup truck searching for the plane drove their 4-wheel-drive vehicles into the muddy farm fields north of County Road 600 North and got stuck, requiring a farmer to tow them out of the mud.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Saturday update: Tippecanoe County Sheriff investigate plane crash