No injuries were reported when a small airplane slid through a fence at Warsaw Municipal Airport and crashed onto the railroad tracks behind Rice Ford.

The pilot of the Cessna 208B told police he was attempting to take off about 11:07 p.m. and didn't think he had enough power. Timothy William Myers, 44, of Three Rivers, Mich., said he started to back off the power when he saw a snow plow. He wasn't sure whether it was on the same runway as the airplane or whether the snow plow was going to cut across his path, so he "veered away and powered down," according to a police report.

When Myers tried to set the plane down, he said, he was going too fast to get stopped and slid off the runway. The aircraft traveled through a fence and struck an embankment. It became airborne and then landed on the railroad tracks about 2,000 feet from the end of the runway.

The accident was reported at 11:22 p.m. after Myers walked back to the airport terminal.

David Beall, airport manager, said Myers was on the east-west runway and one of three snow plows in operation at the time was on the north-south taxi way when the accident occurred. Beall said he was driving the snow plow on the taxi way.

Warsaw police noted tracks in the snow from the plane's landing gear indicate the plane swerved north and back south before jumping the bank and landing on the railroad tracks. The airplane was facing west with the nose gear broken and folded under the plane and the rear wheels on the east side of the railroad tracks.

The airplane sustained an estimated $50,000 to $100,000 in damage, including damage to the front landing gear, the fuselage and the propeller.

Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were expected on the scene for investigation this morning. Local officials were in contact with those authorities throughout the night.

Myers, who works for Planemasters Ltd., was transporting cargo for UPS, according to a police report, and the crash left five cartons of bone cement used in orthopedic surgery damaged. Officials with UPS, Warsaw Fire Department and DePuy all declined to transport the damaged boxes, which were considered hazardous materials. The damaged boxes were bagged and left at the scene for later removal and the boxes that were intact were transferred to a UPS truck and taken to a hangar at the airport.

The airplane was removed from the tracks by a crane brought in from Hoffer Crane Service in Atwood and a truck from Southside Wrecker took the plane back to the airport, where it was placed in a hanger to await the FAA and NTSB officials.

The Norfolk-Southern Railroad tracks, which were shut down until the plane could be removed, were cleared about 2:30 a.m., with the airplane in the hangar by 3:46 a.m. [[In-content Ad]]