MESQUITE, Nev. – Mesquite Police Officers were dispatched to the area of the Mesquite Municipal Airport on a reported plane crash with two passengers on board Saturday around 12:38 p.m on Saturday.
Officers arrived on scene and observed aircraft and barricade debris on Kitty Hawk Drive below the West end of the airports runway. The Cessna Caravan single engine airplane was located several hundred feet away on the 17th hole of the Canyons Golf Course.
Jeff Christensen, an airport attendant on duty at the time of the crash, said the plane was caught by a strong tailwind while attempting to land. The plane was also experiencing engine trouble at the time.
“(The plane) jumped the rail guard, jumped the road, and crash-landed in the golf course,” Christensen said.
The pilot, Alan Best, 25, of Washington, Utah, and passenger Paul Kurt, 43, of Roscoe, S.D., were out of the aircraft and being assisted by witnesses when police and Mesquite Fire and Rescue arrived on scene. Best was treated and released on scene while Kurt was transported to Mesa View Regional Hospital where he was treated and then later released.
“They had angels on those wings,” Christensen said, and remarked it was a miracle no one was seriously injured.
The exact cause of the crash will not be determined until the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completes their investigation.
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