BRIDGEPORT, West Virginia – A Piaggio P.180 Avanti aircraft made an emergency landing at the North Central West Virginia Airport late Friday morning.
Assistant Airport Director Shawn Long said the distress call was initiated at 11:45 a.m. from an eight passenger Piaggio P.180 Avanti.
“They were losing pressure in the cabin and they had a cracked windshield,” long said. “So, they declared an emergency.”
In addition to onsite emergency assets, Long said police from Bridgeport, Nutter Fort and firefighters from Clarksburg and Anmoore were dispatched.
“We had our emergency services deployed and approximately 15 minutes later the plane landed safely and all was good,” Long said.
Training for both the air crew and first responders made the emergency situation appear to be almost routine despite some tense moments in aircraft cabin.
“In this situation there was not much danger present, the pilots knew that they would get down,” Long said. ” They were close enough to our airport they could come in and land safely.”
Probably unknown to the air crew at the time of landing is the North Central West Virginia Airport is a regional jet maintenance hub. So, long estimated they’ll be able to make repairs on the grounds and resume their trip.
“We have plenty of maintenance operations onsite, so we did offer them contacts there,” Long said. “We’re hoping we can get their aircraft into one of the local facilities, get them fixed and back in the air.”
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