By Kendra Evensen

kevensen@journalnet.com

    ROCKFORD — A single-engine airplane crashed into a wheat field while attempting to make an emergency landing in the Rockford area west of Blackfoot on Monday morning.

    Two people were in the plane when it went down, but neither was injured in the incident, said Bingham County Sheriff Dave Johnson.

    Bobby Picker, 63, of Idaho Falls was flying the Cessna 172 Skyhawk — belonging to AvCenter Professional Aviation Services of Pocatello — when the engine lost power shortly before 10 a.m., Johnson said. Picker tried to glide the plane to the Rockford Municipal Airport, but had to make an emergency landing in a nearby wheat field instead.

    The plane flipped over when it hit the ground, Johnson said, but neither Picker nor passenger Craig Hansen, 30, also of Idaho Falls, were seriously injured in the incident.

    “They both crawled out OK,” Johnson said.

    AvCenter officials were unavailable for comment on Monday, but Johnson said the plane was being used for cross-country training.

    The plane is at least the third that has had to make an emergency landing in the field located at 1150 W. 150 S. in recent decades.

    Kim Shawver, who owns the field, said he knows of at least two other planes that have had to make emergency landings there in the past.

    “(The field) is located at the end of the Rockford airstrip so we’ve had quite a few,” he said. “It’s never a boring time here at K & R Farms.”

    Still, it has been years since the last plane landed in the field, and Shawver said Monday’s accident was the worst he’s seen.

    “It was tipped upside down with the wheels in the air,” he said, adding that the planes that have landed there in the past simply had to be towed out.

    Shawver said the wheat stalks likely caught the plane’s wheels when it tried to land, causing it to flip.

    The plane only caused minor damage to the crop, he said.