Maple Park pilot dead, toddler injured in rural DeKalb County plane crash

HINCKLEY – A Maple Park man died and a toddler was injured Saturday in a small plane crash in rural DeKalb County, authorities said.

Deputies with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and first responders with the Hinckley police and fire departments, Waterman Fire Department and Big Rock Fire Department responded to reports of the crash about 3:30 p.m. at Hinckley Airfield, 12747 U.S. 30, according to a news release.

Pilot James A. Beyer, 51, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, authorities said in a Sunday update.

Sheriff Andy Sullivan called the deadly crash Saturday “a tragedy.” A 3-year-old suffered injuries, was hospitalized at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and then transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

Sullivan said the child is stable, however.

The pilot and child were the only people in the plane at the time, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the pilot took off from Hinckley Airfield in a 1946 Aeronca Champion 7AC single-engine plane. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed in a farm field just west of the airfield.

Authorities from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board still are investigating what caused the crash.

This story was updated at 5:60 p.m. June 9, 2025.