PHOENIX — Matthew A. Hayden, 44, of Phoenix, an experienced Air Force fighter pilot, died on Sunday when a Cessna plane he was flying in snowy weather crashed in a field in Union County, Ohio.
Hayden had taken off from Dayton International Airport at 5:17 p.m. in a 1974 Cessna 421B fixed-wing, multi-engine plane owned by Classic Solutions Company Inc., in Bakersfield, California, said the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
Hayden was headed to Delaware Municipal Airport in Delaware County when the plane went down at 5:42 p.m. near Route 42, between Harriott and Bell roads in Jerome Township, about 7 miles northeast of Plain City and near the Delaware County line.
The aircraft broke into hundreds of pieces in the field.