Airplane lands behind homes, startles Ivins residents

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IVINS — A small plane startled Ivins residents Monday by landing on a dirt road behind a housing development.

The two-passenger single-engine plane landed on the road behind homes on Firerock Trail about 12:15 p.m. Fire and police responded to the scene, but were not needed.

“There was no emergency other than just the passenger was airsick,” Santa Clara-Ivins Police Officer Chad Holt said. “There was no malfunction of the plane, there was no failure of any kind. Just a sick passenger.”

The passenger reboarded the plane and the plane took off on the same road about 20 minutes after landing.

“An aircraft can land anywhere,” said Brad Kitchen, St. George Regional Airport operations supervisor. “As long as it’s not in residential and he can land in a safe manner. He had a sick passenger? Yes, that’s considered an emergency.”

Kitchen said as long as the pilot can safely land the aircraft, the incident falls under the rules and regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration.

“They’ll want to see just how sick his passenger was,” he said. “As long as there is no structural damage to the aircraft, there was no crash, there was no incident, he’s fine.”

The FAA will likely want to question the pilot, Kitchen said, but probably nothing will come of it.

This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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1 Comment

  • DB February 23, 2016 at 2:45 pm

    Way back when, I flew over 300 flights through the Grand Canyon. Airsickness is NOT an emergency. The Pilot exposed him/herself to much more potential problems by landing off-airport and most likely will be getting a friendly phone call from the FAA.

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