NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) – The runway at Coastal Carolina Regional Airport is back open after a plane landed on its belly.
Sunday night, emergency crews could be seen at the airport after a small single-engine plane landed on its belly. Airport Director Andrew Shorter was only able to share a few details about what he called a “wheels up landing.”
According to Shorter, the small single-engine plane had a landing gear problem, and when the plane went to land, the gear folded underneath, causing the plane the slide on it’s belly, also known as “Gear-up landing”. Shorter says there were no injuries and accidents like this happen from time to time.
“The person who has the plane is probably going to be upset to have a big maintenance bill to repair the airplane. But it worked as designed. No injuries, no fire, no issue,” Shorter told WITN.
Shorter says that the three people on board the plane were not injured.
He says the plane landed on the bigger runway, which is why one commercial flight was delayed.
Shorter told WITN that the landing “didn’t leave a scratch on the runway,” which was closed for about 90 minutes.
According to FlightAware the last plane to land at the airport was a Piper PA-24 Comanche at 7:54 p.m.
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