UPDATE: Pilot in Plane Crash Near Monticello Identified

On Monday 8-11-2025 at 2:49 PM the Jones County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a downed aircraft in a field south of Monticello, IA. This was reported by staff of Monticello Aviation 

located at the Monticello Regional Airport. They received information from another aircraft in the vicinity that had located a downed aircraft in a soybean field and was circling the crash site to aid first responders in locating the plane. The Jones County Sheriff’s Office, Monticello Police Department, Monticello Fire Department, Monticello Ambulance, Anamosa Ambulance, and LifeGuard Air Ambulance responded to the scene. First responders reached the aircraft at approx. 3:06 PM. First responders located the pilot, and only occupant of the aircraft, deceased in the cockpit. The pilot whose was fatally injured is identified as being James (Jim) Eugene Rohlf of rural Bennett, Iowa. 

The aircraft is a 1958 T-28B Experimental tail number T-28B. A preliminary investigation has revealed that the downed aircraft had departed the Monticello Regional Airport flying south. Shortly after takeoff the pilot reported, over the radio, he was having engine trouble and was going to return to the airport. Less than a minute later the pilot reported he was going down in a beanfield. Another aircraft approaching the Monticello Regional Airport overheard the radio traffic, from the distressed aircraft, and responded to the area locating the crash site. The crash site was located 4 of a mile northeast of the intersection of 170th Street and 140th Avenue and approx. 4 mile off of 140th Avenue rural Monticello, IA. This was approximately 2 miles south of the Monticello Regional Airport. 

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are leading the investigation into this fatal crash. The pilot was transported to the lowa State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, IA for autopsy. The on-scene investigation has concluded and the wreckage has been recovered from the soybean field. The aircraft is being transported out of state, for closer inspection, by federal investigators. 

Assisting the Jones County Sheriff’s Office in the response and investigation is the Monticello Fire Department, Monticello Ambulance, Monticello Police Department, Anamosa Fire Department, Anamosa Ambulance, LifeGuard Air Ambulance, Jones County Medical Examiner’s Office, Jones County Emergency Management, Jones County Secondary Roads Department, Monticello Public Works, Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, lowa State Patrol, Monticello Aviation, Myers Aviation Inc., Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board. This is still an ongoing investigation.