Feb 10, 2008 9:42 pm US/Central
Local Pilot Killed In Minnesota Plane Crash
GRAND MEADOW, Minn. (AP) ―
The pilot killed in the crash of a single-engine plane in southern Minnesota Saturday was identified Sunday as a Denton County man who had just bought the aircraft.
Phillip Ray Edgington, 54, of Sanger, bought the 1948 Cessna 140 in Wisconsin on Friday, the Mower County (Minnesota) sheriff's office said.
Edgington was flying the plane solo to Missouri with a stopover planned in Iowa, when it went down early Saturday in a bean field near Grand Meadow, about 25 miles southwest of Rochester, Minnesota. He had made radio contact with the FAA's Minneapolis center at about 12:50 a.m. while over the Rochester area.
Edgington's family called authorities after he became overdue. The Civil Air Patrol began a search about 2 a.m., and the wreckage was found around 9 a.m. Saturday by Larry Churchill, who lives nearby and was letting horses into a barn at his parents' farm.
Churchill said he and his son, Brian, noticed what appeared to be a pile of brush through the fog. They saddled up horses and rode to the site, where they found the pilot's body, partially underneath the plane's cockpit. Brian Churchill called authorities on a cell phone.
"There was debris all over the field," Larry Churchill said. The plane appeared to have slid about 150 feet, leaving parts in its wake, he said. Maps and suitcases were at the site.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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