Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
The pilot of a single-engine airplane who was on his way to Dare County made an emergency landing and overturned on a baseball field at Cape Henry Collegiate School on Saturday.
"Apparently, he was trying to make it to Oceana and decided to put it down on the field," said Battalion Chief Kenneth Pravetz of the Fire Department.
The Cessna, registered to an Ellicott City, Md., man, came down about 1:45 p.m. in the athletic field at the school in the 1300 block of Mill Dam Road. Cape Henry Collegiate is next to First Colonial High School.
The pilot was flying from Bethesda, Md. Pravetz said the pilot told firefighters he was not hurt and was checked on the scene.
Pravetz said the name of the pilot had not been released as of 7 p.m. Saturday, and the pilot was not a local. State police are investigating and the pilot is not being charged, Pravetz said.
Anthony Checchio, 25, said he was playing tennis at First Colonial High when he saw the plane flying “extremely low.”
“It really didn’t have a sound,” he said. “It just came out of nowhere.”
Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com
Jennifer Jiggetts, (757) 222-5150, jennifer.jiggetts@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Finding the Cause
It will be very interesting to see the preliminary investigation and find out if this was a mechanical problem with the aircraft or fuel exhaustion.
Crash Landing.
The Pilot of this plane that crashed was my father. I found out from my mother when I was woken up from a nap today that his plane had crashed somewhere in Va and that he was ok. So thanks for everyone that commented and I am truly blessed that nothing serious happened! My father is a GREAT Pilot! He only had to get stitches. Nothing serious. Thank God!
Said Obi-Wan to the rest of
Said Obi-Wan to the rest of the group, "Another happy landing..."
As they say
"Any landing you walk away from is a good landing."
"any landing where you can
"any landing where you can use the aircraft again is a great landing"
The only way he could have
The only way he could have topped this would be if he had walked to the hospital to be checked out. Imagine telling the nurse in the ER you just crashed your plane and would like to be checked out, they probably would tell send you to a differnt type of hospital.
If it was VB Sentara he will get a bill for approx $1000
If he "got checked out" at VB Sentara he will get a bill for approx $1000 to just walk in and take his BP and say he is OK. Cheaper to fly home First Class" on SouthWest or just take a taxi to back to Maryland. This pilot did a great job in a tight situation to find the small plot of open space to put his small plane down. If development continues, as planned, around NAS Oceana his "clear area/space" crash-landing options will increasingly be greatly diminished in the near future. Hmm, two choices: neighborhood street or small business parking lot?
plane on the va beach collegiate field
good job for the pilot who made it down safely.... but i thought it was the NORVIEW pilots, not the cape henry collegiate pilots! :-)
I get it!!
BOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
:)
the Taco Belle
good pilot!
The pilot did a great job! He landed on the hockey field! Missed goals, bleachers, fences, and concession stand. Seems to be no damage except to the field.... and the plane. What would he have done if it was an afternoon during the week? Thank goodness there were activities on the fields!