Saturday, September 04, 2021

Incident occurred September 04, 2021 at Smith Field Airport (KSMD), Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana





FORT WAYNE, Indiana (WANE) – A plane crashed at Smith Field Airport this afternoon.

According to the Fort Wayne Police activity log, officers were called to Smith Field for an aircraft accident around 2:30 p.m. today.

There, a small plane crashed, coming to a rest upside down on the airfield near the airport’s Cook Road entrance.

The pilot was the only person on board and has no reported injuries.

After the aircraft- which was not from Fort Wayne- took off from Smith Field, it had to turn back, possibly to refuel, and “had some issues landing” at the field, said Joe Marana, the director of operations and facilities for the Fort Wayne Allen County Airport Authority in an interview with WANE 15.

Marana said in the 4 p.m. interview the plan was to have the runway operating again within 30 minutes.

Marana said the city has had its “fair share of aircraft incidents around the Fort Wayne area the last couple of years,” and he said this incident is about the third one in the last two years.

With another runway open, people are still able to fly at Smith Field, and Fort Wayne International Airport is operating as usual.

At this time, the windy weather is not suspected to be a factor in the crash.

Officials are still investigating the incident.

4 comments:

  1. One more failed tail-dragger landing. "Up until the 1950s, most airplanes were equipped with conventional landing gear, with the main wheels up front and a tailwheel in the back. That arrangement made landing the airplane rather challenging, and a lot of student pilots would quit out of frustration when learning to land. Cessna engineers took the successful model 170 airframe and mated it with the tricycle landing gear pioneered by the B-24, B-25, and B-26 bombers from World War Two. With that and more, a tricycle gear-equipped small airplane suddenly made learning to fly so much easier, and Cessna became the craft of choice for many flight schools."

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    1. Gosh, that’s an interesting comment providing information none of us were aware of. Thanks, it’s really appreciated.

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  2. Maybe why the B-17 was so much better than the B-24, B-25 and B-26.

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  3. I've been flying taildraggers for 29 years off and on, J3, PA11, 7AC, experimental, 300 hours in the taildraggers, never even come close to a ground loop. Just keep your feet active and use proper crosswind techniques........knock on wood.😁

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