Local expert gives credit to pilot after emergency plane landing in Fresno
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A small plane carrying an advertising banner was forced to make an emergency landing in a residential area over the weekend. The pilot had to be quick on their toes to react and land the aircraft in as safe of a manner as possible.
“I was just in my driveway getting my truck loaded up and I had heard him flying not over us, but kind of a little bit over in the next neighborhood. And I heard him lose engine power and start to pull up a little bit and I was kind of worried,” Fresno resident Mikel Saldivar said.
Sunday afternoon, Fresno police and fire responded to a small plane landing in a residential area. It was reported that no one was injured.
“It definitely could’ve been very bad. He could’ve stalled the airplane or spun out or something, land right in a house,” Saldivar said.
It is still unknown who landed the plane. A local pilot instructor says that preparations for emergency situations make up the bulk of the training.
“On average it would take about three months to become a private, so that’s just recreational flying. It’s 40 hours in a plane. Out of those 40 hours, 35 hours is training for abnormalities and emergencies,” Certified Flight Instructor Brian Aguirre said.
Aguirre explains the thought process of a pilot when put in a tricky situation.
“We’re scanning our instruments, particularly our engine gauges. As long as they’re looking all perfectly fine, we continue about our business. But once we start seeing those signals that something is going abnormal or there is a situation that isn’t part of the flight, we start making contingencies from there,” Aguirre said.
With no injuries reported and no damage to the plane itself, Aguirre is left impressed with how this weekend’s freak landing was handled.
“Honestly I hope that I never find myself in that sort of situation, and if I do, hopefully I can perform to his level of expertise,” Aguirre said.
