Liberty meal flight ends in plane crash

The airplane owner said the engine just stopped before the crash landing.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- What started out as two pilots wanting to taste some local Mexican cuisine ended in the private airplane they were flying crashing outside Ravenna.
"We had a nice meal," recalled 59-year-old airplane owner Robert Nietro of Hinckley in Medina County.
He and his passenger, fellow pilot Brian McGreen, 31, of Parma, walked away from the crash Wednesday night.
Both were released from Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, where they were treated for cuts and bruises.
Nietro, a real estate investor, said Thursday that he and McGreen had decided to fly his 1966 Alon Aircoupe to the Youngstown area for dinner.
Their destination was the Cancun Mexican Restaurant at the Quality Inn and Suites on Belmont Avenue here.
Nietro said McGreen had told him it was a good place to eat, so they decided to try it.
With Nietro at the controls of his plane, the two flew out of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport and landed at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport about 6 p.m.
They were given a courtesy car offered to pilots and drove south along state Route 193 (Belmont) and had dinner at the Cancun.
They returned to the Vienna-based airport shortly before 8 p.m., topped off with fuel and took off for the return ride to Akron-Canton Regional.
What happened
Nietro said he was flying at about 4,500 feet when "all of a sudden, the engine stopped."
"We tried to restart it and we couldn't," Nietro said, noting that McGreen took over the controls because he's an airline pilot.
They had graduated together from flight school about 10 years ago.
They radioed Akron-Canton Regional about their emergency and were directed to the nearest runway -- Portage County Airport.
On occasions, the engine would restart, but would then sputter to a stop, Nietro explained.
Eventually, McGreen was forced to sit the plane down in a field about a mile short of the Portage airport after flying under power lines.
The landing gear caught in a ditch and the craft spun around, "almost cutting the plane in half.
They scrambled from the wreckage out of concern that the fuel might catch fire.
Nietro said the plane is "demolished," but he is insured and it will be replaced.
Asked about the food at the Cancun, Nietro said it was delicious.
The State Highway Patrol and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating.
yovich@vindy.com