Two passengers in a small plane were able to walk away with minor injuries Sunday afternoon after they struck a powerline, then hit a combine before crashing in a soybean field near Lonsdale, Minn., in Rice County. The occupants of the two-seat plane were identified as Martin Curtis, 66, of Montgomery, Minn., the pilot, and his passenger, Roxanne Rossini, 58, of Prior Lake.
When authorities arrived at the scene, they found the two "conscious and alert," according to the Rice County Sheriff's Office. They were taken to Queen of Peace Hospital in New Prague for treatment.
The driver of the combine was Mark Kruse, a neighbor of Curtis.
Kruse said he was harvesting soybeans when he felt "a bump" in the back of his machine and then saw the plane's small fuselage fly over the cab of the combine. He was not injured.
"We were both lucky today," Kruse said. "They walked away, and so did I. If they hadn't hit the combine they would have gone straight into the trees."
The sheriff's office said the plane was "spiraling" just before it crashed around 2:15 Sunday afternoon. The crash remains under investigation. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration will be at the scene Monday.
Lonsdale is north of Faribault and west of Northfield.
David Phelps • 612-673-7269
