Emergency landing successful

A single-engine airplane was forced to make an emergency landing on U.S. Highway 75 near Mayetta on Saturday night after the plane’s engine failed, according to Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse.

Sheriff Morse said a 1991 model Beechcraft Bonanza V35 airplane was en route from Topeka, where the two men and two children aboard the plane had gone “to watch the races,” to Omaha, Neb., when the plane’s engine gave out over Jackson County at about 8:15 p.m.

“The engine blew, spewing oil over the windshield and preventing the pilot from seeing,” Morse said. “The front seat adult passenger was able to get in the back with the children while the pilot changed seats where he could see better.”

The pilot was then able to follow a vehicle going north on U.S. 75, Morse said.

“He said a vehicle behind him backed off so he could land,” Morse added.

The Bonanza landed on part of the highway’s northbound lanes, striking a highway marker sign and nearly hitting an overhead power line but otherwise leaving the four occupants of the aircraft unhurt, the sheriff said.

Traffic was reduced to one northbound lane after the emergency landing, except for a short time when both lanes were closed so that the plane could be removed from the highway. All northbound lanes were reopened by 9:35 p.m., Morse said.

The Kansas Highway Patrol identified the pilot of the plane as Wyatt Honomichl, 42, of Sioux Falls, S.D., and the plane was reported as belonging to Main Attraction L.L.C., also of Sioux Falls. Morse identified the other adult occupant of the plane as Justin James Stuart Richards of Onawa, Iowa.