PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 Two more small planes were forced to make emergency landings in Arizona this week, the latest in a series of emergency landings raising safety concerns across the state.<\/p>\n
Five emergency landings have occurred in just over one month. Thankfully, no one has been seriously hurt, but aviation experts are wondering what\u2019s to blame for the trend.<\/p>\n
Friday night, a pilot made an emergency landing<\/a> in a field in Sun Lakes. Only hours before that, engine trouble led to another emergency landing<\/a> on a Tucson street.<\/p>\n Recent incidents<\/p>\n Last weekend, a small plane\u2019s engine stalled, forcing it to land on U.S. 60.<\/a> It nearly hit a pickup truck with a family of four inside.<\/p>\n At the end of April, a mechanical issue caused an emergency landing on a Mesa roadway. In mid-April, another emergency landing occurred<\/a> on 7th Street due to engine problems.<\/p>\n Three aviation experts weighed in on the incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that this has been happening more often, I don\u2019t know if the actual statistics support that,\u201d said Tim Kiefer, assistant professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.<\/p>\n Possible explanations<\/p>\n One theory is that the public may just be seeing and hearing about incidents involving aircraft more often.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause everybody has a camera and because everybody\u2019s on social media, a lot of these events are being brought to the public in real time,\u201d Kiefer said.<\/p>\n Another possibility is that Arizona skies are filled with pilots in training.<\/p>\n \u201cArizona is the flight training capital of quite literally the world. People from everywhere come here to learn. So when you have new pilots in aircraft learning to fly, they\u2019re going to have incidents and accidents,\u201d said Steven Devine, owner of Fly Aero Angel Flight Training.<\/p>\n Aging aircraft could also be a factor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aviation fleet is getting older. They\u2019re not producing airplanes anymore like they used to,\u201d Devine said. \u201cAs these planes get older, they\u2019re going to have problems.\u201d<\/p>\n All three experts agreed that full investigations into each of the landings will reveal whether this is a concerning trend or a series of unfortunate coincidences.<\/p>\n \u201cI am concerned about the numbers. So we need to start looking at, are there common threads to all these things?\u201d said Cary Grant, assistant professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.<\/p>\n Kiefer said the FAA and NTSB will investigate the landings and will use artificial intelligence to analyze the reports for common factors.<\/p>\n See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n