A Windsor pilot is crediting "training and a bit of luck" for landing his plane in a cornfield near Sarnia.
John Cundle, 54, was flying his Cessna 150 named "Hasel" last Thursday around 10:30pm when the engine stopped. He said based on his training, the first thing he did was look for a place to land, but there weren't any airports nearby.
So he started to look for a place with no lights.
"The best thing to do is look for the blackest spot out there," he tells AM800 News. "So that's what I did, I quickly scanned the area looking for the darkest place and the reason you look for the darkest place is because if there are no lights, you don't have to worry about a house or a barn."
Cundle says he found a spot thinking it was grass, but when he got closer, it was a cornfield.
He tells AM800 News, he just focused on landing the plane.
"The number one thing that all my instructors have told me, is that no matter what happens in the air, fly the airplane and that was number one front in my head."
Courtesy of John Cundle
"A lot of people ask, 'Well weren't you scared, didn't you panic?'" says Cundle. "The worst thing would have been to panic, as far as being scared, I was so busy, because I knew I had a limited amount of time to get stuff done, I was so busy there was no time to think of anything else."
His plane received some minor damage, but Cundle says he was fine. He was checked over by paramedics and did not go to the hospital.
Once he got out of the plane, he says he went onto the wing and began waving his flashlight in order to get the attention of emergency crews.
He was back in the air on Monday.
Windsor Pilot John Cundle talks about landing his plane in a cornfield near Sarnia