Heat and humidity down ultralight plane

OHIO — A collision between an ultralight plane and a high tension power line resulted in a power blackout for Ohio and Walnut for more than seven hours Monday night.

Richard M. Besler, 46, of Ohio, Ill., was piloting his ultralight plane near Ohio Monday night when he hit a high tension power line near Long Street and Hannon Road on Ohio’s northeast side.

According to the report filed by Officer Walter Mack of the Bureau County’s Sheriff’s Department, Besler told Mack he knew the plane was too low, and he was “attempting to increase his altitude, but due to the heat and high humidity, he could not get much lift.”

Besler said he caught the right rear tire on the wire, which stopped the plane, but allowed the para-wing to continue to move forward. That caused the wing’s angle to change from an uplift to be more pointed toward the ground.

Besler said since he was powered up at the time he got hung up, when the line broke, he attempted to regain the speed needed to correct the wing’s angle to avoid crashing but was unsuccessful.

The accident was reported 8:21 p.m., and when Mack arrived, Besler and passenger Kurt W. Peterson, 52, of Walnut were being attended to by Ohio first responders and Princeton EMS workers. The men reported only minor injuries and refused any medical treatment on the scene.

ComEd media relations spokesman Peter Pedraza confirmed the power went out at 8:10 p.m. Monday in Ohio and Walnut and said it was completely restored by 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. Pedraza said 1,680 customers were affected by the outage, and the incident was still under investigation.

Regarding the plane, which was removed from the scene by the Ohio Fire Department, Besler told Mack it would require “major repairs.”

Bureau County Sheriff John Thompson said while the plane was flying too low, there would be no tickets issued by his department.

“They were fortunate to survive both the electrical charge from the wire and the crash,” Thompson said.