Pilot unhurt after plane lands on NC school field
May 31, 2013, 1:58 AM
BREVARD, N.C. (AP) – The pilot of a small plane has walked away unhurt after his aircraft crash-landed on a soccer field at a western North Carolina school.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the single-engine Cessna 182 lost power around 4:40 p.m. Thursday.
Brevard police say 44-year-old Richard Secord, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., experienced an “engine blowout” when his plane was at nearly 10,000 feet. Authorities say Secord told an air traffic controller that he did not think he could make it to Transylvania County Regional Airport, and he landed his single-engine Cessna at an elementary school in Brevard.
Secord told police he tried to land on a private airfield across the street from the school, but saw a vehicle on the runway and children in the field.
He was flying to Roanoke, Va., and had stopped to refuel at an airport in Georgia. The pilot sustained minor scrapes to his face,
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
