A Maryland man died on Friday afternoon when a small single-engine plane went down in a rural stretch of southern Ohio, federal and state authorities said. The crash adds to a growing string of small plane crashes across the country in recent weeks.
David Wade, of Salisbury, Maryland, was the sole occupant of the plane when it crashed around 2:20 p.m. local time on Friday, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Wade was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities told Columbus station WCMH, an affiliate of NBC.
The plane—a 1987 Mooney M20J—came down in a field near the address of 8 County Road 1A, roughly 2.7 miles west of U.S. Route 52 in Hamilton Township, the patrol said. Troopers from the patrol's Ironton Post responded to the crash site after being asked by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to secure the area.
A spokesperson for the highway patrol did not return messages seeking comment from NTD News prior to publication.
In its own statement on Friday, the FAA confirmed a plane had crashed in Ironton at around 2:15 p.m. local time with only the pilot on board. The agency said the NTSB will lead the investigation.
Neither agency had released a probable cause or further details as of Friday.
The fatal crash in Ironton follows two other small plane incidents that rattled communities in Florida and Arizona over the last week.
A neighbor who witnessed the Florida crash, Harry Adams, said he had been watching planes fly over his property throughout that afternoon from his front porch.
"You could throw a rock and hit my house right there. I was sitting on the porch swing out there all day watching the planes," Adams told Gainesville-based television station WCJB. "I love doing it. I was watching them with my binoculars, and when you see a star like that, it stands for the United States. That's what it's for, it's a sad tragedy."
Adams said the planes had been flying over his property regularly for several days leading up to the crash. The FAA and NTSB have launched a joint investigation into that incident as well, with the NTSB leading the inquiry.
Phoenix Fire Captain DJ Lee described the outcome as remarkable.
"They walked away from this crash, and no one else got hit. It was pretty much a miracle," Lee said.