Skydiving Plane Uses Frontage Road as Landing Strip

After safely releasing his skydiving passengers into a beautiful summer morning Saturday, the pilot of a plane with a local skydiving business had to make an emergency landing in a bean field.

According to a press release from the Mount Pleasant Police Department, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what went wrong with the fuel system of a plane used in a local skydiving business.

John C Helmle, 41, had taken a group up and released them for their jump just before the plane started to experience trouble with either the fuel system or ran out of fuel. Helmle put the plane into a controlled descent, aiming for the runway on the west side of I-94 when he instead had to put the aircraft down in a field on the east side of I-94 instead.

The plane landed upright and Helmle was found walking around uninjured when officers from Mount Pleasant and arrived at 9:34 a.m. The plane was eventually escorted safely down Highway 11 and back to the hangar.