Pilot injured as plane flips near Paulding

7/20/2008

PAULDING, Ohio - A cropduster pilot was hurt yesterday when his aircraft overturned on landing in a cornfield about two miles southwest of this Paulding County village, authorities said.

Lynn A. Flaten, 50 of Sayre, Okla., suffered a minor head injury. He refused medical treatment, the Ohio Highway Patrol's Van Wert post said.

Mr. Flaten was spraying the field with a fungicide about 2 p.m. when his biplane cropduster began to lose power. Though he was aiming for the bean field across the road, the aircraft touched down in the cornfield. There were no signs of a dangerous chemical spill related to the crash, troopers said.