The single engine plane he was flying ran out of fuel. It landed about a mile south of Mesquite Metro Airport. Its landing gear had some minor damage as a result of the hard landing.
Witnesses said they were alarmed by the eerie silence as the plane neared the ground.
“I told my wife, ‘that airplane is going down,’ cause sometimes we sit there and I hear motors — you know — so I told my wife, ‘wow I don’t hear noise or nothing and it’s going down,” said Mesquite resident Manuel Marquez.
The plane is registered to an owner in Delaware. The pilot wasn’t injured.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
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http://registry.faa.gov/N915BB
A pilot safely landed his fixed wing, single-engine plane in rural Dallas County after radioing for an emergency landing on Sunday afternoon, December 1, 2013.
According to authorities, the pilot ran out of fuel which caused him to make the emergency landing.
Manuel Marquez and his wife, who own a 10-acre plot of land next to where the plane landed, witnessed the landing. “I saw the airplane coming down and I started running to try to see that nobody died," said Marquez.
When Marquez arrived near the airplane, he saw a man exit the airplane who was walking around. “I asked him if he was alright and he said, 'yeah I'll be alright',” said Marquez. In addition to the pilot, it appeared the plane was occupied by at least one other person. No injuries were reported.
According to Marquez, the plane circled low above his home before striking his fence and landing in the field. “He hit the fence,” said Marquez. He believes the pilot struck the fence with his rear tire to slow the landing to avoid running through the field and into a nearby tree line.
“He hit the fence, he hit that little ditch there, bounced up, and landed where he's at now,” said Marquez's son. While the plane was overhead, Marquez said he did not hear the aircraft's engine running. The landing was apparently made without any power to the plane.
The landing occurred just south of Interstate Highway (IH) 20 near the intersection of Ravenview Road and China Lake Drive in Dallas County. The plane is a 2007 American Legend Aircraft fixed wing, single-engine AL11 registered to Daniel C. Bullard of Dallas, Texas.
Mesquite authorities, Dallas Police and Fire/Rescue, and a Dallas Police Department helicopter responded to the incident. Fire and rescue crews were cleared after it became apparent no injuries were sustained during the emergency landing.
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