A plane crashed in a Shalersville Township cornfield around 4 p.m. yesterday after losing engine power less than a minute after takeoff.

Sgt. Don Dunbar, with the Portage County division of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said pilot Joseph Salemi and passenger Lou Gliozzi both walked away from the crash-landing without injury.

Dunbar said the single-engine plane, which took off from Portage County Airport, was flying at 500 feet when the engine shut down. Shortly after that, it crash-landed in the field just north of Lake Rockwell Road and west of Infirmary Road.

“They struck the top of a tree and landed shortly after that,” Dunbar said, adding that hitting the tree didn’t cause complications.

The flight didn’t have a destination and was used to fly around the area, he said.

Dunbar said the Federal Aviation Administration will start an investigation into the cause behind the engine failure today. Investigations, he said, can sometimes take up to a year.

– Amadeus Smith