Pilot made emergency landing on rural road
It’s not at all uncommon for planes to land in St. Andrews thanks to the St. Andrews Airport but last week an unscheduled landing on a rural St. Andrews road took place bringing a little bit of extra excitement to the community.
The six passengers were on their way back from Sachigo Lake First Nation which is a community in Northwestern Ontario and were headed to Winnipeg. Everyone on the plane got out safely.
Bryon Cassie, a St. Clements resident, was a passenger on the plane. He says that they encountered some inclement weather on the flight.
“There was some weather so the pilot tried going above. He went to higher elevation for a while, and it wasn’t any better so he went back down lower,” said Cassie.
The plane was a Piper Navajo which has two engines which keep it in the air.
“Ten or 20 minutes before we actually ended up landing, the left motor cut out. [The pilot] didn’t say why but a couple of the other gentlemen with me actually had their pilot’s license as well, and so were aware that these twin-engine planes can fly on one engine without any problems,” said Cassie.
At that point, Cassie said that he handed his camera to the passenger next to him to get a photo and that no one was particularly concerned at that point.
“I want to say about 10 minutes later, the pilot turned around and said make sure your seatbelts are fastened, ‘Brace, brace brace,’ and probably 10 or 20 seconds later, we were on the ground. It was a very smooth landing,” said Cassie.
He says that he was just wondering what was happening when the pilot said to brace.
“I thought it was pretty cool actually. I fly a lot. I don’t have any issues with flying. I enjoy it a lot. But in this case, this was just a new experience. The pilot was very calm. Everybody on the plane was very calm. So, it was just almost routine sounding,” said Cassie.
Reflecting on the situation Cassie believes that it could have been a lot worse.
“Obviously, we were overwater for a percentage of the flight. [Had the pilot] maybe tried to land in the field beside rather than on the road, the field looked very bumpy, so there could have been damage to the plane, or it could have had an impact where it was not a smooth landing and there could have been some injuries. But the way the pilot handled it was just perfect. As far as I’m concerned, he made the right choice and landed us all with very little fanfare and just a nice touchdown,” he said.
Cassie said that his understanding of the situation was that the plane ran low on fuel but he is not an authority in the matter and is unsure as to the reason that this happened.
“[After the landing] we were all in good spirits. Everybody was joking,” said Cassie.
The charter company sent out vehicles to pick up the passengers and everyone was able to complete their trip.
“Thanks to the pilot, everybody got home safely. He did a great job, and I would fly with him again,” said Cassie.
