Plane makes forced landing in desert outside Beaver Dam

MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. — A single engine plane was forced to make an emergency landing Monday after the pilot smelled something burning and the cabin filled with smoke.

A small plane made an emergency landing in the desert outside of Beaver Dam Monday. The pilot and passenger were unhurt. Mohave County, Arizona, May 16, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
A small plane made an emergency landing in the desert outside of Beaver Dam Monday. The pilot and passenger were unhurt. Mohave County, Arizona, May 16, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News

“(We) got a report of a plane down from a passerby on I-15,” Mohave Country Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Stock said. “That it was north of I-15 in the fields. By the time we were responding, the pilot had actually called in.”

The pilot, San Diego resident Dylan Tobias, said he was working on his commercial flight training.

“I was doing a required flight that had to be at least 250 nautical miles away from your home airport,” Tobias said, adding that he was traveling with his father, Eric. “We went up to St. George, stayed in Zion for a day and we were going to fly back to San Diego today.”

The plane, a 1980 Cessna 172P, was headed to San Diego from the St. George Regional Airport.

“They left St. George,” Beaver Dam Fire Chief Jeff Hunt said, ‘and all of a sudden they could smell electrical, the cabin filled up (with smoke) so he just headed down.”

Dylan Tobias was philosophical about the hard landing.

“You get trained for this kind of thing, and to be honest, I probably could have done a better job. I’m really just happy that we’re OK and the airplane is not in too bad of shape.”

Units from the Mohave County Sherrif’s Office and the Beaver Dam Fire Department responded to the scene, followed later by representatives from the FAA and the NTSB.

St. George News videographer Sheldon Demke contributed to this report.

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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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

 

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3 Comments

  • fun bag May 16, 2016 at 9:13 pm

    very lucky to be over such a smooth patch of open ground..

  • Bender May 17, 2016 at 12:53 am

    Landing gear intact, prop not bent. Just a banged up wheel fairing. I’d give it a 9/10 for forced landings in creosote.

  • paoniagirl May 17, 2016 at 7:55 am

    Wow! This made the Phoenix news, that’s how I found out about it. I live on the north side of I-15 in BD. Didn’t know a thing about it. Thanks for the excellent report and photos.

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