Created: 11/25/2009 5:34:53 PM 
Durham, NC -- A single-engine plane has crashed in a field in central North Carolina and the two people on board managed to escape before a fire started. Chatham County sheriff's deputies believe a man and woman are lucky to be alive after they put a small plane down for an emergency landing in a pasture near the Durham county line Wednesday. WRAL-TV reports the Cessna crashed Wednesday near the Chatham-Durham county line. The names of the people on the plane were not immediately available. The fixed-wing, single-engine Cessna 170B crash landed in the pasture, off 7691 N.C. Highway 751, near the northern reaches of Jordan Lake, around noon. Kent Misegades, who owns the plane, said his friends took off from the Apex airport, but soon after, the plane's engine started running roughly, and smoke and flames appeared in the cockpit. A Chatham County Sheriff's spokesman says firefighters worked to put out the blaze. Aerial photos show a burned out nose and cockpit with part of the tail remaining. Misegades said he's glad to lose his plane and keep his friends. His friend who was at the plane's controls is an experienced pilot who flew in the Vietnam War and for an airline and now teaches flying lessons, Misegades said. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
Associated Press/WRAL
