CENTRAL CITY, Neb. – An unmanned plane undergoing maintenance in Merrick County took off on its own and crashed Tuesday night.
The Merrick County Sheriff’s Office says it was called to the area of 13th Road and M Road in rural Central City shortly after 7:30 p.m. when the Emergency Communications Center had received a report of an airplane that had crashed in a cornfield.
Authorities determined that the airplane was undergoing maintenance when at some point the airplane began to travel down the runway of the Central City Airport. The airplane gained an estimated elevation of approximately 200 ft and traveled in the air for a distance of approximately 1.5 miles before crashing into a nearby cornfield, according to Sheriff’s deputies.
No persons were on board of the airplane during this incident. No injuries were reported. Both the FAA and the NTSB were contacted and the scene was cleared by officials with both agencies.
