by Quint Qualls, Spring Hill Home Page
Although currently under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, an emergency landing by a pilot in Spring Hill Wednesday did not result in any injuries or major damage.
According to Lt. Justin Whitwell, public information officer for the Spring Hill Police Department, the pilot, whose name has not been released, had flown from North Carolina and was headed for Arkansas. After refueling in Warren County, the plane malfunctioned, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in a farm field at 2660 Buckner Lane, near Summit High School.
At present, the cause of the incident was that the pilot was unable to maintain power in the plane, and investigators have not yet determined the reason for that malfunction, said Kenneth Owens, aviation safety inspector for the FAA.
A broken landing gear was the only real damage done to the plane, which occurred when the pilot had to swerve to avoid a cow upon making his landing in the farm field.
The plane itself, a Thorp T-18, was an “experimental aircraft,” according to Owens. What that means, he said, is that a plane is homebuilt from an FAA-approved kit.
“It means it could be built from a kit that is approved by the FAA, and sometimes, whoever the purchaser of the kit is, they have to build at least 51 percent and they can name it whatever they want,” Owens said. “In this case, he named it Thorp. I’m not sure if Thorp was a person who built it, but that’s what it is. They don’t have a standard air worthiness certificate, and there’s some other things that go along with that.
“It’s primarily for people that are aviation enthusiasts that don’t necessarily want to operate commercially. This is more for recreational purposes.”
The investigation into the emergency landing is ongoing. Although presently there are no legal actions being taken, Owens said that the investigation could potentially result in some legal consequences. For instance, there could be a regulatory violation or a dispute between the pilot and the property owner, but at this stage there is no way to know definitively, he said.
The insurer of the aircraft is due to send a representative out later on Wednesday to pick the aircraft up and take it to a facility for further inspection.
