Tragedy avoided as plane clips cell tower and crashes in vacant lot near Evangel University

A small private airplane left a trail of what-ifs in its wake as it flew over mid-town Springfield on Friday and crashed into a vacant lot on the Evangel University campus.

A witness saw the plane clip the cell tower near Chestnut Expressway and the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge at around 5:30 p.m., before it traveled another mile-and-a-half over rush-hour traffic and went down in a small empty field — less than 100 feet from several houses and right across the street from a playground.

All four occupants survived. Two went to the hospital with minor injuries, and two others did not need medical transport, the city reported on Friday night.

There was no apparent damage to any structures in the area, and first responders seemed to have the situation under control in a matter of minutes, even though the plane was reported to have been on fire at one point.

KY3 reported that the pilot of the plane was Bill Perkin, owner of KSPR-TV. KY3 said the passengers were Greg Horton, Paul Reinert and Amy Ford, and the plane is owned by Integrity Home Care of Springfield.

Lt. Chad Eutsler, with the Springfield Police Department, was on the scene at Evangel. He said the situation could have been much worse with so many homes and buildings in the vicinity, but he could not speculate on if the pilot crash-landed in that spot on purpose.

"We are very fortunate," Eutsler said. "We don't know the circumstances, if it was something where the pilot was able to take action to do that, but I am sure that is something the investigation will be focused on."

The investigation into exactly what happened is now in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. A release from the city said investigators were not expected until Saturday morning.

The portion of the plane's aircraft registration visible to a News-Leader photographer following the crash appears to match that of a single-engine plane that left Lee's Summit Municipal Airport at 4:25 p.m., according to the the flight-tracking website FlightAware. The website indicates the plane was headed to the Downtown Airport in Springfield, with a scheduled arrival time of 5:29 p.m.

Ken Walker was hooking up a trailer at Moore Printing Company on North Jefferson Avenue when he said he saw the plane clip the cell tower near Chestnut Expressway with its right wing.

Walker, who also pilots small airplanes, said the crash scene had the look of more luck than skill.

"I would say it just wasn't his time to die," Walker said.

Walker said the plane looked to be flying too low as it hit the tower. He said fuel started blowing out of the plane after it made contact with the tower, but the pilot was able to keep the wings level.

Walker said he thought the pilot may have been flying low to stay under the dropping cloud cover.

There was police tape around the tower on Friday night, and an officer on the scene said there was a piece of an airplane on the ground next to the tower.

Derrick Dann lives a few blocks away from the crash site on Pythian Street. He said he saw the plane before it crashed and immediately knew something was wrong.

"We were outside and we heard a plane and we looked up and it was flying real low," Dann said. "Me and my wife were like 'Oh my God, that thing is going to crash.' And then all of a sudden you just heard a bunch of trees (snapping) and a bunch of noise."

Evangel spokesman Paul Logsdon marveled aloud that the plane hit the ground where it did.

"It's sort of a miracle it landed there near a cluster of trees," Logsdon said. "That's one of the very few bare stretches around."

Logsdon said the lot was one of several residential properties Evangel owns in the area. He said the university buys up lots on occasion as they become available. The lot where the crash occurred is on the south side of Pythian in an area where five houses had been taken out, he said.

Aaron Braunberger, a student at Evangel, was walking across campus when the crash occurred. He said he thought initially that it was a car accident until he saw the overwhelming response from police and firefighters.

"There were so many lights and vehicles here," Braunberger said. "It was crazy."

The crash occurred near the downtown Springfield airport, a relatively small, privately-owned airfield southeast of the intersection of Glenstone Avenue and Division Street. The airport is open to the public. Private planes account for most of the air traffic at the airport, which does not have an on-site control tower.

Officials have not said for certain whether the plane was attempting to land at or take off from that airfield.

No one answered calls to the Downtown Airport's main phone number after normal business hours. The News-Leader's attempts to locate a phone number for General Manager Bradley Byron were unsuccessful.

Kent Boyd, spokesman for the much-larger Springfield-Branson National Airport, said his facility's aircraft/rescue fire department received no word about an aircraft in distress, and the general aviation staff heard nothing from airborne aircraft in the area.

Boyd reported that aviation weather conditions were unremarkable Friday. Visibility was 10 miles, with a ceiling of 1,600 feet. Winds were from the southeast at 8 knots, or about 9 mph.

It was clear from the scene that at least two people had to be removed from the plane by emergency workers and were taken away on stretchers, but officials later reported that no one suffered severe injuries.

Logsdon said no Evangel buildings were damaged.

OzarksTraffic.com, a website maintained by state and local traffic authorities, listed the location of the crash as 1620 E. Pythian St., between 900 N. Waverly and 900 N. Delaware. The site reported an "aircraft emergency" at 5:30 p.m. The initial report listed the location as 1111 N. Glenstone Ave. — an address for Evangel University — between 1800 E. Pythian and 1800 E. Bergman.

County property records show the lot is owned by the university.