Waterloo man died when airplane goes down in fiery crash near Columbia

Two good Samaritans pulled a pilot from his burning airplane after it crashed into a field in Monroe County on Sunday.

The pilot, a 71-year-old Waterloo man, was critically injured and was airlifted by Arch Helicopter to a St. Louis hospital, according to a news release from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.

The man, the sole occupant of the aircraft, had been working on the airplane’s engine prior to taking off from an airfield off Bluff Road, west of Columbia and Interstate 255. Smoke reportedly began filling the cockpit, the sheriff’s release stated, prompting the pilot to attempt a return to the airfield.

The Federal Aviation Administration website lists an airport at 11563 Bluff Road in Monroe County called Sackman Field.

The plane crashed into a field near the 500 block of DD Road, near Sackman Field, the release stated. Sheriff’s deputies and Columbia Police, Fire and EMS responded to the scene at about 12:12 p.m.

The plane, a 2007 Zenith Zodiac 601 HDS, caught fire prior to the crash, according to the sheriff’s department. The single-engine airplane had a 23-foot wingspan, fixed landing gear and two seats in the cockpit, according to the Zenith website