This news article was posted on another site. I hadn't heard about this, and I aplogize if I have missed it here if someone has already posted it....
August 29, 2007
Two crashes at Alberta airport
By NADIA MOHARIB
SUN MEDIA
Three people escaped injury when their plane crashed in a field near
Springbank Airport, the first of two mishaps at the facility yesterday.
Emergency crews were first called about 10:30 a.m. after a Murphy Moose,
a single engine float plane, on its way to Lac La Biche in Northern
Alberta, went down minutes after takeoff into an alfalfa field west of
the airport.
Witnesses said the engine started stuttering seconds before it landed
near a farm, overhead power lines, and a field of cattle.
Two men and a woman who were in the plane were standing next to it when
emergency crews arrived to find the aircraft upside down and mostly
crushed by the impact.
Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt in that incident, said
Springbank's general manager Larry Stock.
"Based on the amount of damage, they are very, very lucky," Stock said
after viewing the wreckage. "You ask yourself the question 'How did
people get out of that?'"
The pilot appeared to have tried to make his way back to the airport
after losing power on takeoff, officials said.
"When you lose power on ascent you have very little time to decide what
to do," Stock said. "It's time to find a place to land."
When the plane made its emergency landing yesterday in a farmer's field,
the tail section was snapped directly behind the two rear seats of the
four-seater plane.
Two of its occupants were taken to Foothills hospital with minor
injuries, while one was not hurt at all.
Then, just before 4 p.m., a Second World War-era P-40K had a rough
landing on the runway at the facility.
"It's very unusual," Stock said of two crashes in a single day. "But if
you take it into context, Springbank Airport is the seventh busiest
airport in Canada."
Stock said a busy day could see 1000 "movements" -- departures and
arrivals -- which is a huge number when compared with the number of
incidents.
Stock said the pilot was lucky to avoid injury when the plane, known as
a "tail-dragger" , hit the ground, its tail coming up and the craft
skidding forward, coming to rest on its nose at a 45- to 90-degree angle
to the ground.
"He's fine," Stock said of the veteran pilot. "But he's not happy he has
a bent airplane."
Transportation Safety Board officials will investigate both incidents.
Steve
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