Engine failure leads to emergency plane landing in Creston

A student pilot had to put his training to the test Monday morning after his engine went out while flying over Creston.

Joshua Hixson of Des Moines successfully made an emergency landing in a farm field south of Creston near Iris Avenue. Hixson was flying a 2024 P-Mentor from Des Moines to northwest Missouri. The plane, owned by Vertical Vision Flight Academy of Des Moines, suffered no extra damage in the landing. No injuries were reported.

Jerry Young of Afton said he was working in a field nearby when the emergency landing happened. However, he didn’t realize anything was wrong until the Union County sheriff found him

“I didn’t even see it land, and they called me. I was down in the bottom field and Brian [Bolton], he called me,” Young said. “He says, ‘There’s a plane up here on the hill.’ I thought he was BSing me. We had to rush up and see what the damage was.”

Though piloting solo, when Hixson saw the engine had failed, it didn’t take him long to land safely back on the ground.

“We train for it, so we know exactly what to do,” Hixson said. “I’ve got to figure out what’s going on first. The engine was completely seized, so we shut off all the fuel, make sure there’s no fires or anything started and we just keep our speed and put it down.”

Student pilots are required to practice emergency landings often throughout their training. The NTSB noted 1,006 emergency landings in single-engine planes in 2024, though the number is probably much higher as pilots often fail to make reports when there are no injuries or damage.