Early Ice Fishing Bid Dunks 172

A Minnesota pilot is paying a hefty price for pushing the season. According to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office the pilot landed a Cessna 172 on Upper Red Lake on the morning of Dec. 19 and the plane went through thin ice. The pilot and a passenger were able to get out of the partially submerged airplane and were wet but not hurt. The lake was their destination and they had planned to go ice fishing. The flight originated in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

The pilot told authorities he flew over the lake to identify a safe area to land. The landing was successful but the absence of snow on the ice meant he couldn't slow the aircraft down and it slid to an area where the ice was less than two inches thick. The aircraft was about a half-mile from shore when it broke through. "The pilot had already made contact with a recovery operation and made arrangements to extricate the plane," the sheriff's office said in a news release.