Crop duster crashes, pilot unscathed

A Belizean pilot is lucky to be alive tonight after he made an emergency landing in a banana field. Tom Murphy was flying a Weatherly 620B crop duster belonging to the Banana Growers Association this morning in the vicinity of Cowpen when around 6:40 smoke began to enter the plane’s cockpit. According to the B.G.A., the smoke continued to build up and Murphy noticed flames shooting out from underneath the aircraft’s fuselage. Finding it increasingly difficult to breathe and see, Murphy attempted to put the plane down in a recently planted banana field. However, it is believed that one of the plane’s wheels caught on a steel cable used to transport the bananas and caused the aircraft to flip over. Miraculously, Murphy emerged with only minor cuts to his face. The plane appears to be a total loss, however. Fortunately it was insured. Investigators from the Civil Aviation Department will seek to determine the cause of the fire.