A 73-year-old La Crosse aerobatics pilot survives second crash-landing

Pilot crashed in Ohio on Tuesday evening

BUCYRUS, Ohio — The La Crosse pilot, who performs his annual airshow during Riverfest, has survived a crash landing in an airplane. Again.

William Blank was the only one on board when he put his single-engine plane down in a farm field just before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The 73 year old’s plane flipped onto its top upon landing, but he was uninjured. The plane, however, suffered significant damage, because it nose-dived before coming to a stop after hitting uneven ground in the field.

Blank’s 2005 American Champion Super Decathlon single-engine, fixed-wing aircraft was taken from the scene by an aircraft recovery service and the FAA was contacted.

The plane needed to be put down in Bucyrus, Ohio, after Blank left La Crosse because of apparent fuel problems.

The last time Blank crash-landed, he was a passenger.

Happened near Pickwick, Minn., in 2009. That plane had left La Crosse when it began having mechanical troubles. 

The plane crashed into a grove of trees on the edge of a field, but neither Blank nor the pilot was injured in the crash.