Ogle County Officials have identified the pilot whose plane crashed Tuesday morning in rural Monroe Center.
77-year old Thomas Plodzien of Monee, Illinois had taken off from the DeKalb Municipal airport on his way to the Chicago-Rockford International Airport. A short time after 7:30, Emergency personnel received word of a single engine plane which had crashed in a cornfield near the corner of Crill and Perryville Roads in Ogle County.
Sheriff Michael Harn told Newstalk 1060 and Plodzien informed the Rockford airport about a fire on board the plane before it crashed. There was apparently a malfunction in the aircraft.
An autopsy was performed on the body yesterday. The results have not been released at this time.
Sheriff Harn said that the aircraft was home made. Ogle County officials along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board continue to investigate the incident.
A spokesman from the FAA said that the plane was under "visual flight rule" which means there was no flight plan.
