Hard landing

A Citrus County Sheriff's Office helicopter hovers over the site where a twin-engine airplane made a crash landing Thursday afternoon near Mason Creek in Homosassa. The pilot was uninjured in the incident. He reported to law enforcement that he was out of fuel at the time of the hard landing.

When Tim Neubert realized his plane malfunctioned enroute to a Brooksville airport Thursday afternoon, the Tampa man chose his next best landing strip: Homosassa’s marshlands.

Neubert said he was on track to land at the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport from Memphis, Tennessee, when his twin-engine Cessna 337 Skymaster had a “fuel issue” midair, forcing him to look down toward the soft marshes surrounding Mason Creek.

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Hard landing 2

Pilot Tim Neubert, left, speaks with Citrus County Sheriff's Office personnel Thursday afternoon following his safe return from where he had to ditch his twin-engine airplane. He reported he ran out of fuel before putting the plane down in a swampy area off Mason Creek.

Contact Chronicle reporter Buster Thompson at 352-564-2916 or bthompson@chronicleonline.com.

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