Plane stops traffic on Highway 11

Authorities have been out on Highway 11 and the I for sometime now and traffic is backed up. The problem? A plane.At 9:34 am today, officers from the Mt. Pleasant P.D. and Sturtevant P.D. responded to a report of a plane landing upright in a bean field near I-94 and Louis Sorenson Rd in the Village of Mt. Pleasant. The pilot of the twin engine plane, John C Helmle, 41 years old, was seen walking around the plane after the landing. There was no damage to the plane. Helmle (sole occupant) was not injured.

At this time it appears that the pilot was forced to initiate a controlled decent of the aircraft due to a fuel issue. Either it ran out of fuel or there was a malfunction with the fuel system. The FAA was contacted and will investigate this further.

Prior to this emergency landing, Helmle had taken a group of skydivers into the air and released them. After that he attempted to land on the landing strip by the Sky Diving business near the West side of I-94 in Racine County (near the final landing). Due to the engine failure Helmle was forced to land on the East side if I-94. A witness observed the plane flying very low to the ground facing westbound before the plane safely landed.