PLATTSBURGH — A plane had a rough landing Monday at Plattsburgh International Airport, but no one was hurt.
At 3:30 p.m., a small twin-engine general aviation aircraft was conducting practice approaches when it had to make a forced landing, Airport Manager Christopher Kreig said in an email Monday night.
The Beechcraft BE58 went off the side of the runway at 3:40 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. Its right main and nose landing gear collapsed.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and were investigating, Kreig said.
The two people on board were uninjured.
"You never want anything of this nature to happen, but this was about the best possible scenario," he told the Press-Republican Tuesday.
CREDITS RESPONDERS
Plattsburgh Airport firefighters, rescue crews and maintenance staff, along with Clinton County Sheriff's deputies, responded immediately, Kreig said.
When he arrived about five minutes later, the aircraft had already come to a stop, and the pilots were out of it.
He and the airport crews, he said, "just went through an exercise earlier this year where we practiced, we trained for that type of an incident, and they did exactly what they're supposed to do. I have to give them all the credit in the world for that."
And believe it or not, Kreig said, no flights taking off from or landing at the airport were affected by the incident.
"We did not have to close the airport," he said. "For a brief period of time, we had to close one of the taxiways but beyond that, there was no disruption of service.
"In that regard, we were extremely fortunate."
INVESTIGATION
Kreig referred questions about the investigation into the incident to the FAA and Traffic Safety Board.
He did not have information on how long the plane was airborne before the forced landing.
"This is a daily occurrence, where we have aircraft that come over here and do practice takeoffs and landings, and they were here doing the same thing."
Kreig said airport personnel were in the process of moving the aircraft to another location at the airport Tuesday morning.
"As far as what repairs will be made and the ultimate disposition of the aircraft, I don't have that information at this time."
PRELIMINARY REPORT
Kate Benhoff, an air safety investigator for the National Traffic Safety Board, told the Press-Republican she could not disclose the names of the people who were on board.
That information will be available in a preliminary report that will come out within the next few days, she said, and the Safety Board is still investigating what prompted the landing.
According to the Safety Board's website, the cause of an accident may not be determined for 12 to 18 months.
Source: http://www.pressrepublican.com
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