By Herald Staff

FRENCH LICK — A Celestine man was not injured when he crashed a single-engine plane Saturday just west of the French Lick Airport.

The crash happened around 1:37 p.m. Saturday. Around 2:09 p.m., the Orange County Sheriff's Department received a 911 call of a possible plane crash west of the French Lick Airport. When Orange County Emergency Response personnel arrived, they confirmed the plane crash and requested assistance from the Indiana State Police in Jasper.

The preliminary investigation revealed that a 1962 Piper Cherokee single-engine, fixed-wing airplane, piloted by Johnnie Bush, 70, of Celestine crashed when approaching to land on Runway 8 at French Lick Airport. Bush reported he had experienced engine trouble prior to the crash. Investigators do not yet have a cause for the crash.

Bush was the pilot and sole occupant of the aircraft, and was uninjured.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been contacted and are expected to arrive on Sunday to further the investigation.

Assisting at the scene were the Orange County Sheriff's Department, French Lick Airport Management, French Lick Fire Department and several neighbors from the area.