A pilot was taken to the hospital Saturday evening after his single-engine airplane ran out of fuel and crashed southeast of Iola.
James V. Devers, 27, Oklahoma City, was attempting to land at Allen County Regional Airport, but the engine to his 1976 Cessna sputtered and died.
Devers attempted to land the aircraft along 2000 Street, about three miles east of the airport.
He did so, but the plane’s wing clipped a tree, sending the aircraft careening into the ditch and slamming into another tree.
Stacey Murrell heard the incident. She was outside on her deck when she heard something skidding along the gravel before crashing to a stop.
“I didn’t hear the motor,” she said. “I assumed it had died already.”
She raced to her car, cell phone in hand, ready to dial 911.
“I knew it had to be something bad,” she said.
As she drove from her house to the road, about 100 yards or so, she saw the plane’s wreckage.
“I was expecting to see a car,” she said. “I never expected to see a plane crash in my front yard.”
Sierra Snavely, meanwhile, was traveling in a vehicle along with boyfriend Zack English and saw the blinking red light from Devers’s plane as it was gliding to the ground.
“It was very low, right above the power lines,” she said. “I figured he was going to the airport. I didn’t know what he was doing, but I figured he did. But then the light disappeared.”
As Snavely and English continued southbound, they came upon the accident, just as Murrell was calling 911.
“All we could see was the red light blinking, then we saw what had happened,” Snavely said.
Devers was conscious, but a bit disoriented, Murrell said, “and he had a gash on the top of his head.”
