2 Arizona college students safely crash-land plane in Montana

A western states trip for two Arizona college students took a scary turn this week when they had crash-land their small plane in a Montana field.

Thomas Seros, 19 and Cody Barnett, 22, both of the Phoenix area, survived a faltering engine and touched the Cessna down safely Thursday, a few miles away from their target — the Bozeman Yellowstone Airport. Neither were hurt in the landing.

The licensed pilots told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle they were second in line to land at the airport when the engine began to stutter.

“‘This can’t be good,'” Barnett, an aerotech student at Arizona State University, said they both thought. He was flying the small passenger plane.

A pilot who works for a helicopter service told Montana’s KBZK TV news as he flew by the two men gave him a thumbs-up as they stood in the field looking at the plane.

Seros, who studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University which has a campus in Prescott, realized they were going to have to land in the field. Eventually, a propeller stopped working, too.

(Facebook Photo/KTMF-KYWB TV)

The plane hit the ground before coming to a stop in an irrigation ditch. The plane was towed away and being worked on.

An airport manager said the plane had little damage.

The newspaper said the two were supposed to be back in Phoenix on Saturday but that was in doubt.

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