Small plane flips on landing at Sunriver Airport; pilot unhurt

A pilot from Washington state landing at Sunriver Airport said an apparent cross-wind caused his nearly 70-year-old plane to veer off the runway Friday afternoon and it overturned in the dirt and rocks, but he walked away unhurt, police said.

Police and fire crews in the resort community responded to the reported crash around 2:20 p.m., said Police Chief Marc Mills.

The arrived to find a 1947 Stinson Voyager 108 single-engine plan on its top off the east side of the center of the runway, Mills said.

The pilot, Christopher Cole, 45, of Bothell, Washington, was alone in the plane, and already had gotten out and was a safe distance away, he added.

The runway was shut down for about an hour for safety reasons and the National Transportation Safety Board was contacted to investigate the crash.

Mills said Cole was landing in a northerly direction when an apparent cross-wind caused the plane to veer east, off the runway and onto soft dirt and cinder rocks. The plane nosed into the dirt and flipped, coming to rest on its top.

Because the plane came to a rest off the runway, airport operations were only temporarily interrupted.