The pilot told police he took off from Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport in the small two-seat aircraft headed toward Butler County Regional Airport in Hamilton, police spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd said. Then the motor quit.
Pilot Dan Hayden, 37, of suburban Anderson Township, and his 11-year-old daughter, Amanda, were the only ones aboard the plane.
Hayden said he saw he couldn't make it to Interstate 75 but saw a school, which would have been closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. But as he banked toward the school grounds he lost altitude and decided to head for the road, Byrd said. The northbound pilot aimed for the southbound lanes because no cars were oncoming.
The plane's left wing hit a utility pole and tore off before it turned and stopped on a sidewalk, one of its three landing gear wheels crushed, witnesses said.
Eugene Blanchard, a sales representative at Abrams Auto Sales, saw the plane overhead as he stepped outside and then saw the crash. He was amazed that it hit no cars or pedestrians.
"Reading Road is a pretty busy street,'' Blanchard said. "Somebody was looking after him today.''
Investigators with Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are reviewing the crash, police said.
