Emergency Landing With SIU Student On Board
By
Fanna Haile-Selassie
By
Josue Orellana
Story Created:
Feb 20, 2012 at 5:25 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Feb 21, 2012 at 12:32 PM CDT
MURPHYSBORO -- First responders were called to the Southern Illinois Airport Monday morning for an emergency landing. The plane's landing gear was stuck, while an SIU student and flight instructor were on board, both are safe.
There are a lot of things that can go wrong when flying. Southern Illinois University flight instructors try to help prepare future pilots to handle these situations.
"We go up, we simulate an engine out, which is just pulling the throttle back to idle," says flight student Adam Lauderback.
Monday morning, one flight student got first-hand experience. During a routine flight with instructor Brian Dierks, the fliers realized the left main landing gear became inoperable on their single engine Cessina 182 with retractable gears.
First responders were called to the runway as the pilots prepared for an emergency landing on the grass.
"I don't think either of them have done anything like this before. I think they've practiced it, but they've never done anything quite like it," says David NewMyer, the Aviation and Flight Department Chair. "The whole idea of an emergency landing like this, in this particular airplane, is to land tail first and try to settle the airplane down."
"This is a prime example of SIU's flight training at its best," says Lauderback. "This is, like I said, something that we practice and prepare for. And, as you can see, with all the training that we do, there's a favorable outcome."
Both student and instructor walked out of the plane just fine. NewMyer says the school has seen about four emergency landings in the last ten years but says these type of situations are hard to predict.
"We're doing all the inspections necessary, but we're still having these problems with this particular year. We're reporting it to the FAA because there are some things out on the website that indicate we're not the only ones," says NewMyer.
The Cessna is about 30 years old but checked out fine during its last examination and was used this weekend without problems. NewMyer says the school would like to upgrade its retractable gear fleet to a new Piper model.
