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Small plane makes emergency landing on Odessa street
[October 27, 2012]

Small plane makes emergency landing on Odessa street


Oct 27, 2012 (Odessa American - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The pilot of a small airplane traveling to Odessa-Schlemeyer Field performed an emergency landing Friday afternoon on 87th Street near Duke Avenue.

The pilot and his two passengers weren't injured, and there was no damage, said Sgt. Hunter Lewis of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which investigated the incident.

The 1959-model Piper fixed wing single-engine airplane ran out of fuel.

"Evidently his gauge is a little off," Lewis said.

The plane was coming from Arizona, where it is registered to MTM Development in Phoenix, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

The pilot notified Odessa-Schlemeyer as he was supposed to do before he attempted the emergency landing, Lewis said.

"In my opinion," Lewis said, "the pilot did an excellent job." A truck with a tanker refueled the plane, and city traffic officials cleared the area so the plane could take off from the street and continue to the airfield, Lewis said. Then the plane returned to Arizona.



Odessa Police announced the roadway was clear at about 2:30 p.m.

A worker witnessed the landing from a yard at the corner of Harvard Avenue and 87th Street as he loaded dirt into a dump truck.


"I've never seen anything like it in my life," said the worker, Eloy "Junior" Flores, part of a crew grading a house.

Flores said the plane flew eastbound and descended barely above a power line crossing the street. A truck drove westbound below the plane, and Flores said the pilot began to pull up. But the plane suddenly dropped again, below another set of power lines. Then it bounced and drove forward until it came to rest on the street.

Flores said he ran to the plane to check on the people inside, and he spoke to the pilot.

"He just said, 'Thank God I'm Alive,' Flores recalled.

Contact Corey Paul on Twitter @OAcrime on Facebook at OA Corey Paul or call 432-333-7768.

___ (c)2012 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) at www.oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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