Pilot, passengers escape serious injury in Comanche County plane crash

COLDWATER, Kan. (WIBW) - A pilot and three passengers escaped serious injury late Thursday morning when the small airplane they were in crashed at an airport in Comanche County in south-central Kansas, authorities said.

The crash was reported at 11:19 a.m. at the Comanche County Airport, located off US-183 highway about three miles south of Coldwater.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 1980 Cessna 421C airplane out of Illinois was coming in for a landing when its front-landing gear didn’t lock. The twin-engine airplane then “nosed” into the runway, the patrol said.

Everyone aboard the plane was reported uninjured.

They were identified as the pilot, Christopher D. Trone, 65, of Rushville, Ill., and passengers Zachary W. Seaver, 22, of Industry, Ill.; Timothy J. Richardson, 47, of Mount Sterling, Ill.; and Ronald G. Strong Jr., 47, of Roodhouse, Ill.

The patrol said all of the plane’s occupants were wearing their safety restraints.

The plane was removed from the scene by the Protown Glass & Body shop of Protection.