Pilot: Engine trouble forces landing in Shelby field

A pilot traveling from New York to Indiana on business had to belly land his single-engine Piper in a field because of engine trouble, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said.

Thomas Garden, of Earlton, N.Y., was not injured in the emergency landing that occurred in the 1800 block of Kirkwood Road sometime before 6 p.m. Kirkwood is an unincorporated community located at Kirkwood and River roads, in southwest county township of Orange.

Garden said he was on a business trip from Hudson, N.Y., to Greenwood, Ind., in his 4-seater Comanche when he encountered the mechanical problem.

He declared an emergency as he flew over Champaign and Shelby counties and made a belly landing (wheels and flaps kept up) about 5 miles from the Sidney Municipal Airport.

Garden said he does not believe the incident is related to the heavy snow squall that raced through the northern Miami Valley when he had to put down his plane.

For now, the plane has been left in the field where it landed. Plastic sheeting has been erected around the plane to protect it from the weather.

The FAA has been contacted, according to the sheriff’s office