EDMONTON - An Edmonton pilot escaped without injury Saturday after using his plane’s parachute to make an emergency landing at the former City Centre Airport.
Darryl Zubot took off from the Cooking Lake Airport for what was supposed to be a two-hour flight in his Pipistrel Virus, a single-engine two-seater kit plane he’s been flying for one year.
But the commercial pilot had mechanical trouble about 45 minutes into the flight.
Zubot was south of the former airport, closed in November 2013 for the Blatchford redevelopment, when the plane started vibrating.
There wasn’t much time to decide what to do, Zubot said.
“I just wanted to be in an open area. The only place I could see was the airport.”
The Virus is equipped with a parachute that can bring it down safely in an emergency.
Zubot was about 350 metres in the air when he cut the engine and pulled hard on a lever, releasing a pink-and-white parachute.
“It shot out with rockets, with quite a bit of force. That slowed the plane down.”
He landed in a snow-covered field on the former airport lands around 12:45 p.m.
Zubot walked away unharmed, although wind later flipped the plane on its back.
A nearby construction worker who called for help came over and asked if he was all right.
“I’m still quite shaken,” Zubot said a few hours laer.
“The fact I’m OK is quite amazing.”
His brother Neil captured the incident on video.
He’s visting Edmonton from Cameroon and had planned to watch Zubot fly over a third brother’s home near the Blatchford site.
They worried until they heard from Darryl that he hadn’t been injured.
“We were relieved to know he was OK, that everything was fine, relieved the parachute opened up,” Neil Zubot said.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada were on their way to the scene Saturday afternoon, a spokeswoman said.
Zubot said the parachute is an optional feature for the plane.
He decided to include it, “just in case something like this ever happened.”
Story, comments and photos: http://www.edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON - A pilot has made a successful emergency landing at a closed Edmonton airport.
Edmonton Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jill McKenzie says the pilot experienced engine trouble with the small, two-seater plane while flying over the city Saturday afternoon.
McKenzie says the plane was equipped with a parachute, which the pilot deployed, and the aircraft landed on the grounds at City Centre Airport.
The airport, located northwest of the city's downtown, was closed at the end of 2013 to make way for a housing development.
McKenzie says the pilot was the only person on board and wasn't injured.
But she says the plane was heavily damaged after the landing when the wind caught the parachute and dragged it along the ground.
The Transportation Safety Board says it's sending an investigator to look at the incident.
McKenzie says she doesn't know where the plane took off from or was headed.
Original article can be found at: https://ca.news.yahoo.com
A small plane was forced to make an emergency landing on a closed runway in the centre of the city Saturday, police confirm.
The plane made a "hard landing" at the Edmonton City Centre Airport after experiencing mechanical trouble Saturday afternoon. After hitting the ground, the glider flipped over.
A spokesperson for Edmonton Fire Rescue told the Canadian Press that the two seater plane was equipped with a parachute, which deployed during the landing.
The plane was heavily damaged after the landing, as the wind caught the open parachute and dragged the craft along the ground.
Police say the pilot was the only person on board, and wasn't injured.
The airport was closed in 2013 to make way for residential development.
The Transportation Safety Board is now investigating.
Story and comments: http://www.cbc.ca
Edmonton Fire Rescue says the plane was forced to make an emergency landing after it lost engine power. It happened around 12:45 p.m.
Michael Gaddie was driving down 101 Street just before 118 Avenue when he saw the plane come down.
“I saw a big pink parachute and it was floating down to the ground just over NAIT,” he told Global News. “We saw it coming down this direction, we followed it over here and it landed upright at the airport here and the wind pulled it over with the parachute.”
Fire crews were deployed to the scene but called back because there was no fire.
Police were also called to the scene, but officers wouldn’t comment on the crash as the investigation has been turned over to the TSB. Officers said no injuries were reported.
Story and photos: http://globalnews.ca
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