Frozen fuel line leads to crash-landing in Kansas marsh; pilot unharmed

A 42-year-old Indiana man was unharmed Thursday when he had to crash-land a single-engine plane in a Kansas marsh after the fuel line froze, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The plane remained where the pilot landed it — near Marais des Cygnes Wildlife Area in Linn County — on Friday and is awaiting removal, KHP trooper Gary Boles said. Linn County is in eastern Kansas, south of Kansas City.

Boles said the man from Indianapolis was flying from South Dakota to do pipeline inspections when the crash occurred just after noon. The temperature at that time was just around 10 degrees and the wind chill was about 1 degree, according to National Weather Service data.

“Pilot stated that the fuel line froze and had an emergency landing,” a KHP trooper wrote in the crash log.

The man was flying a 1968 Cessna 177A. There were no passengers.

This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 11:45 AM.