[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Friday, April 28, 2000

Title: Pilot Makes Emergency Landing MARK HANSON, Bismarck Tribune A Bismarck pilot and passenger walked away unscathed after an emergency landing on the back wheels and nose of the airplane Thursday afternoon at the Bismarck Airport.

The front landing gear wouldn't engage and the pilot landed on the back two wheels before easing the plane down on its nose. The small, twin-engine plane owned by Executive Air Taxi Corporation sustained damage, but no estimate was available.

Executive Air owner Dennis Rohlfs said the pilot was Ray Heyde of Bismarck. He declined further comment. The identity of the passenger was not released.

Bismarck Airport Manager Greg Haug said landing gear problems happen quite often during a year, but "a lot of the time it's routine. Sometimes the light won't come on."

A number of emergency vehicles responded to the airport, include airport fire trucks, Bismarck fire trucks, Bismarck police and Metro ambulance.

The plane flew over the airport on its first pass to verify if the landing gear was engaged. Once it was determined that the front tire wasn't lowering, officials planned for an emergency landing.

"Ultimately, it's the pilot's decision in an emergency landing," Haug said. "There was talk of landing in the grass."

The plane landed on one of the airport's runways. Plenty of other air traffic had to be directed around the scene.

"It happened during a busy time of the day," Haug said.

Haug said the Federal Aviation Administration office in Fargo will investigate the incident.

"They like to see if particular problems happen with certain planes over a period of time," he said.

Haug said the pilot did all the right things during the emergency landing. An Executive Air newsletter for the second quarter of 2000 had a story on Heyde being named North Dakota's 2000 General Aviation Flight Instructor of the Year.

The award is given out by the FAA and is based on outstanding contributions to aviation safety and education within the state.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/tribwebpage/news/apr2000/428200051013.html

====================

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 28, 2000

Answers

How many stories of landing gear failures have we heard lately? Fantastic.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), April 29, 2000.

I heard this straight from a horses mouth (a programmer) two years ago. They said there "might be a problem with the landing gear due to programming". Don't know they ever worked on the small planes, I know they worked on the fast flying ones.

-- Amazed (here@now.com), April 29, 2000.