Small plane crashes outside of Chewelah

Two men escaped serious injury Friday when their small plane crashed into a field just north of Chewelah, Wash.

“They walked away from it,” Stevens County sheriff’s Capt. Mike George said.

The plane was destroyed. It didn’t burn, but was “in multiple pieces,” George said.

Chewelah Police Chief Troy Anderson identified the pilot as M.C. Hardin, of Chewelah, and the passenger as Morton Robinson, whose address was unknown.

The crash occurred shortly after 1 p.m., near the intersection of Old Chewelah Highway and Steinmetz Road — about three-fourths of a mile north of Chewelah and a half-mile west of U.S. Highway 395.

Chewelah has a small airport in the vicinity.

Details were sketchy, but Anderson and George said the men apparently were testing a single-engine, two-seat experimental plane. It was not clear whether Hardin was attempting an emergency landing.

“There was some sputtering and it ended up in a field,” George said. “It was a recently plowed field, it was probably kind of soft.”

Also, George said, it appeared the aircraft “didn’t have a lot of speed when it hit the ground.”

The occupants were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chewelah with what George said appeared to be mostly cuts and bruises. Hospital officials refused to give a condition report on the men.

George said the crash was referred to the National Transportation Safety Board for investigation.