Small plane goes down near ABIA, no injuries
A pilot and a passenger are safe after making an emergency landing today southeast of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
It happened near Elroy road and Heine farm road early Friday afternoon.
Not much is being released about what led to the landing as it’s currently under investigation.
Those who witnessed the landing say they noticed something wrong almost immediately. "Never seen anything like that," said Greg Patton who was working outside.
Being so close to the airport he's used to seeing planes come and go which is why he knew something was off. "I was like there no run way over there, I didn't think there was. I was hoping they were all right," said Patton. Patton said he saw the plane barely clear a red barn before touching down in a field and bouncing a few times.
"I was making sure there wasn’t a fire, got the fire extinguisher out of the truck," said Patton.
The plane landed in a field right across from where Patton was working followed shortly by first responders. "6 or 7 fire engines, probably 10 to 15 police officers, 5 EMS trucks, probably 3 or 4 aviation vehicles I believe," said Patton. In the end he was able to see the two in the plane walk away, grateful a potential catastrophe was avoided.
The National Transportation Safety board said they will be looking into the issue.
Right now, it's not known when the plane will be moved out of the field.