(Cherokee)– A North Dakota man is in a Sioux City hospital after a crop dusting plane he was piloting crashed Sunday near Cherokee.
The Cherokee county Sheriff’s Office says it received a report from a citizen around 10:10 a.m. Sunday stating the plane had gone down in a soybean field south of Cherokee, causing a chemical spill.
The Cherokee Fire Department, Sheriff’s Office, police, Sioux Valley Memorial Hospital Ambulance, Cherokee County Emergency Director and Sioux City Hazmat Team were called to the scene.
The area was cordoned off until the hazmat team determined the product tank was empty and there was no threat.
The rescue team was decontaminated at the scene.
The pilot, 38-year-old Vance Bakke, was taken to the Sioux Valley Memorial Hospital in Cherokee. He was later transferred to a Sioux City hospital by helicopter. Hospital officials say Bakke requested no information be released about his condition.
An agricultural services dealer, Curt Ehlers, says he hired Bakke to do some spraying.
