PILOT AND HIS SON ESCAPE INJURY WHEN PLANE LANDS IN RURAL FIELD

JACKSON -- A Cape Girardeau man and his son escaped unharmed Sunday afternoon after making an emergency landing in an alfalfa field near Jackson.

The pilot was 38-year-old William T. Drury of 2942 Bloomfield Road. With him was his 13-year-old son Brandon.

The landing occurred at 3:38 p.m. along County Road 330 about one-half mile off Route PP. The field is land owned by George F. Williams.

Drury, who was returning the plane to Sikeston after flying to St. Louis and Festus, said the plane's engine failed about five miles northwest of the landing site.

"I kind of panicked a little bit. I was trying to get the engine going, trying to get it flying," he said.

"...It started running again, came back to life and things were going OK, and it cut out again. I had to put it down."

The plane, a single-engine 1978 Cessna 152 owned by Jolliff Aviation in Sikeston, came to rest about 125 feet from the spot it touched down. It sustained a broken front wheel and bent propeller.

The Missouri Highway Patrol, the Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Department and the Gordonville Volunteer Fire Department responded to the accident.

Drury said he has been flying for less than two years and has never had an occasion to make an emergency landing before -- "except an emergency simulation."