The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The remains of a sprayer plane which crashed in a field north of Carrington are seen here. Lawrence Polries of Jamestown was the registered owner of the aircraft, and died in the accident.
Lawrence Polries
At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, a fatal airplane crash occurred south of New Rockford, N.D.
According to Eddy County Sheriff Paul Lies, several witnesses traveling on Highway 281 reported seeing the plane crash into a cornfield west of the highway, and just a few yards north of the Eddy-Foster County border.
The plane was reportedly traveling west when it clipped the power lines east of Highway 281, said Lies, and ultimately went down in the cornfield immediately west of the highway about 6 miles south of New Rockford.
Lies said the airplane was a crop duster, and that its pilot, 63-year-old Lawrence Polries of Jamestown, N.D. died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash.
Polries, a native of Sykeston, N.D. and an agriculture pilot, had flown out of the Carrington Airport Tuesday morning, said Lies.
A press release from the North Dakota Highway Patrol states that Polries was spraying a sunflower field in a 2012 Air Tractor (AT502) when his tail fin made contact with an electrical wire.
According to a representative of Northern Plains Electric Cooperative, the plane is presumed to have crashed into a WAPA (Western Area Power Administration) transmission line, resulting in power outages at multiple substations in Carrington and the surrounding area.
The outages lasted between 30 and 90 minutes before all power had been restored.
Sheriff Lies said his office is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who will conduct an investigation
into the crash.
Other agencies involved include the Eddy County Sheriff's Office, Foster County Sheriff's Office, New Rockford Ambulance, New Rockford Fire Department and the Carrington
Fire Department.
Polries had operated his agricultural spraying business, Larry's Aerial Spray Service, out of Carrington for more than two decades. The Mass of Christian Burial for Polries was held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23 in St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church, Sykeston.
