Pilot escapes injuries

Brett Hickman, 24, of Black Oak escaped injury Monday evening as his biplane crashed into a cotton field, about 200 yards east off Highway 139, north of Monette.

On Tuesday, Hickman related to Monette Police Officer Brandon Womack that he had taken off from a landing strip west of Highway 139, belonging to Jim Steele, about 5:30 p.m. and was attempting to spray a nearby field when his 1977 Grunman G164A biplane lost power and nose-dived into a cotton field, then flipped.

Hickman walked away from the crash with only a scratched leg.

Hickman crashed an Ag Cat agricultural airplane in Bono on May 9.