No landing gear deployed, but pilot was uninjured
A local pilot who had just had the engine of his small plane checked in West Virginia did not deploy his landing gear but escaped injury Tuesday when the craft came down on Washington County Airport’s sole runway.
William McGowen, executive director of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority which operates the 401-acre airport southwest of Washington in North and South Franklin townships, said the incident occurred at sunset and resulted in the closure of the airport for about an hour.
Pilot Dean Gutzwiller, who was returning home from a trip to Charleston, W.Va., was alone in the four-seat, single-engine Cessna 182 Skylane at 7:25 p.m. when it came down.
McGowen, a former U.S. Navy pilot, said failure to deploy landing gear occurs because “usually something distracts you, like other traffic in the area or the sun in your eyes.”
There is no air traffic control tower at the Washington County Airport, but officials immediately issued a notice to airmen and notified Pittsburgh Approach control about the closure.
“Pittsburgh Approach is typically talking to the airplanes that are closest to us,” said Scott Gray, executive director of the Washington County Airport.
North Franklin and South Franklin volunteer fire companies, Washington County emergency services and state police responded, using flashing lights to warn aviators of trouble on the ground.
“They were Johnny on the spot,” McGowen said, noting that the crews also used spotlights as they put rigging on the plane so a crane could lift it and have the landing gear dropped so the airport’s fixed-based operator, Skyward Aviation, could tow the Cessna from the runway.
Gray said two pilots had planned to land just after the Cessna. One plane waited at the Allegheny County Airport while another was at Rostraver Airport. Both landed at the Washington County Airport after it reopened at 8:50 p.m.
“We will investigate this,” said Tim Peters, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in New York City, whose initial information called the incident a “gear-up landing.”
FAA records show the Cessna Skyward is owned by David A. Miller, an attorney in Palmer, Texas. A message left for him was not immediately returned.