A 1943 twin-engine Beech 18/C-45 aircraft crashed into a ditch while performing ground maneuvers on Saturday in the 900 block of Hare Road.

The owner and operator of the aircraft, John Mosby Williams of Bonita Spring, Fla., had been performing maneuvers to test his brakes at a grass landing strip in a rural part of the city at the time of the incident, according to a city spokeswoman.

Williams was not injured.

Emergency dispatchers received a call at 5:18 p.m. advising them that the plane was blocking the roadway, with the front of the aircraft in a ditch. Emergency crews arrived to find a citizen with a tractor trying to help remove the plane from the ditch.

According to Suffolk spokesperson Diana Klink, the brakes had failed, causing the airplane to veer across the road and into the ditch.