A NARROW ESCAPE

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News

October 3, 2016 - 12:00 AM

Jeffrey Sigel, Denver, made an emergency landing with his small aircraft on a rural Allen County road Saturday evening. Noticing engine trouble, Sigel guided his plane along 400 Street west of Iola until it skidded to a halt. Even so, he and his passenger, Bethany Brandstatter, Huntsville, Utah, were able to walk away from the wreckage.
Sigel, 40, had filled the plane with fuel shortly after 5 p.m. at Allen County Airport and took off headed for Wichita. Minutes into the flight engine trouble developed. Sigel, looking for a place to land the Lancair Evolution kit-built craft, chose the county road, four miles west of Iola.
The glide path was on the mark until the left wing of the plane caught in bush alongside the road. That spun the plane sideways, ensnaring the prop in brush and ripping the engine from the fuselage, which then slid to a stop 50 yards up the road.
Landing gear also was torn from the plane during the episode, and fuel cells were ruptured, enveloping the scene with the strong smell of spilled fuel.
Sigel and Brandstatter, 38, were fortunate the plane remained upright. They escaped the cockpit with relative ease. Jared Froggatte, an Iola police detective who lives about half a mile away, heard the crash and was first on the scene after he notified authorities.
The two were taken by ambulance to Allen County Regional Hospital, with cuts and bruises. Neither was admitted.
The spilled fuel was absorbed by an application of hay.
It is uncertain where Sigel and Brandstatter went after leaving the hospital.

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