ST. GEORGE — Two distressed aircraft made emergency landings Wednesday at the St. George Regional Airport after the first plane reported a blown engine while the second reported a landing gear malfunction, reports made within five minutes of one another.
Just after 2:30 p.m. airport operations received a distress call from the pilot of a twin Beechcraft Baron plane reporting one of its two engines failed during a flight from Escalante to the Las Vegas, Nevada, area.
It was flying with a “dead stick,” said Brad Kitchen, airport operations supervisor.
Continuing the flight would prove difficult with only one engine because the plane is pulled in the direction of the functioning engine, he said, which presents the added challenge of trying to keep the aircraft on a stable course.
While preparations were being made for the Beechcraft Baron to make an emergency landing, a second distress call came in from the pilot of a Piper Comanche reporting a problem with the aircraft’s electrical system that was affecting the landing gear.
Kitchen said the pilot told airport staff he was able to lower the gear manually but had no way of knowing if the gear was locked into position. The pilot was instructed to remain in the air until the Baron landed.
Meanwhile, the Baron was in a descent to the airport, which took longer without the second engine, Kitchen said, but the pilot was far enough out that he was able to land safely.
Addressing the second aircraft’s situation, airport staff instructed the Comanche pilot to fly past incident command set up on the ground to allow them to visually confirm that the landing gear was fully extended. After two attempts, incident command was unable to determine whether it was locked into place.
“With the Beechcraft on the ground, we advised the Comanche pilot to land at his own discretion,” Kitchen said. “We only knew the landing gear was locked and functioning properly after the plane touched down.”
Kitchen said airport staff are trained to deal with just about any type of scenario but not necessarily when two emergencies are reported at the same time.
“Which just goes to show that sometimes anything can happen, and then you just handle it,” he said.
Both of Wednesday’s incidents were categorized as “Alert 2” emergencies by the Federal Aviation Administration, Kitchen said. An “Alert 1” is when an aircraft is having minor difficulties but a safe landing is expected; an “Alert 2” involves an aircraft that is having major difficulties, such as a fire on board, for example, where a difficult or crash landing can be expected; and an “Alert 3” involves a plane that has already crashed, or has a high probability of crashing.
The two distress calls and the events that followed ended without injury or further damage.
“Everything went well on our end and on the pilots end, so we got them on the ground and everything worked out,” Kitchen said.
Ed. note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the flight path of the Beechcraft and that the second plane flew past a tower to ascertain status of the landing gear.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.
Just curious as to when a control tower was commissioned at KSGU. According to my charts and AirNav the St George airport is a non tower facility.
Just curious the article says the plane was flying from Escalante, California to Las Vegas. Saint George is not between anywhere in California and Las Vegas. How was Saint George the best place to land this distressed plane?
Ann, thank you for your comment. Because another commenter asked a similar question, we put another call in to the airport operations supervisor to clarify the details and have adjusted our report accordingly.
Thanks again,
Paul Dail
Editor in chief
Escalante is a small town in Utah, which is where this airplane departed from. It is east of Bryce Canyon, apart of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I’ve never heard of an Escalante in California. But perhaps that’s because I’m from ‘round these parts?
And yes, there is no air traffic control tower in SGU. Pilots coordinate their movements with each other on a common radio frequency. Airport operations and the fire station are tuned in to overhear the chatter.
Since when did KSGU get an air traffic control tower? And why was the pilot flying over St George if he was flying from California to Las Vegas…
TF, thank you for your comment. Because another commenter asked a similar question, we put another call in to the airport operations supervisor to clarify the details and have adjusted our report accordingly.
Thanks again,
Paul Dail
Editor in chief
I’m glad the other engine on that Beechcraft didn’t fail because he could have been up there forever!
“It was flying with a “dead stick,” said Brad Kitchen, airport operations supervisor.”
Just a minor comment and it was no fault of the author. Flying ‘dead stick’ means the plane has absolutely no power. This Baron still had one engine running. When one earns a twin engine rating, as I did in my youth, one is trained to fly on one engine, only when the situation required, of course!