Authorities say a pilot went missing for several hours after a small propeller plane crash-landed in a central Kansas field.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner says the plane went down around 3:30 p.m. Thursday in a rural area near the small town of Roxbury. The Federal Aviation Administration says wind caught the Maule M-5 and that the left wing struck the ground during the landing.

Gardner says troopers tried reaching out to hospitals in the area in an effort to locate the pilot but were unsuccessful. Gardner says the patrol didn’t hear from the pilot until he called dispatchers about six hours later.

Gardner says the pilot’s plane was disabled and that it’s unclear how he left the scene. Gardner says investigators are trying to determine what happened.

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ORIGINAL: A pilot was able to walk away when his  small plane crashed near the McPherson County community of Roxbury Thursday afternoon.

The two-seated, Maule plane went down at around 3:30 in a field.

A witness told KSAL News at the scene that she heard the crash. A few minutes later when she approached it the pilot was gone, presumably headed to seek medical treatment.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Craig Davis told KSAL News at the scene that McPherson County law enforcement were the first to arrive. He says that the pilot was not at the crash site when law enforcement arrived. They were still in search of the pilot late in the afternoon.

The patrol is investigating to determine what caused the plane to go down.

The plane ended upright, and was not leaking fuel.

The small community of Roxbury is located in the northeast corner of McPherson County, between Salina and McPherson, or 18 miles east of Lindsborg.