A Tropic Air single engine Cessna made an emergency landing on the southside of Belize City today. It's a small plane, seating only four, but by all accounts, the pilot's skill averted what could have been a major accident. Here's the story.
Amado Badillo, Regional Manager - Tropic Air
"It was on a flight from Belize Municipal Airstrip at approximately 3 pm enroute to Dangriga with three passengers onboard and approximately five minutes after departure the pilot started experiencing problems with the aircraft and he decided to turn back to the Belize Municipal but he couldn't make it that far and he had to do an emergency landing on the southern coastline of Belize near the Customs or Port Authority Limited property."
Tropic Air pilot Graham Allen made his emergency landing here, bringing the Cessna 172 down roughly two and half miles south of the municipal airstrip. It's a vast undeveloped swathe of land adjoining the Port of Belize, about half mile in from the sea. As you can see from the rutted wheels, the ground is soft. But there are no major obstacles - so in terms of emergency landing, experts say it's about as good a place as you can find for a landing of this type. Kent Flowers was operating an excavator nearby and saw it go down.
Kent Flowers, Witness
"Well we just see when it passed and by the time we turned around and looked up, it is was coming down. We already said somebody would have died so we tried to get there fast and hurry."
Jules Vasquez,
So when you got there, you were surprised?
Kent Flowers,
"Surprise yes, everybody was okay."
Ok and this passenger Naja Chamberlain was almost unfazed. We spoke to her as she was leaving the site.
Naja Chamberlain, Passenger
"We had engine trouble and lost power."
Jules Vasquez,
Were you scared for your life?
Naja Chamberlain,
"No because I could see that we had a
lot of nice places to land."
Jules Vasquez,
You said the pilot did a good job?
Naja Chamberlain,
"Just beautiful, really. I wasn't scared at all."
Jules Vasquez,
So now you have to jump on another flight.
Naja Chamberlain,
"Got to go home and feed my dogs."
Jules Vasquez,
So are you scared to go on that other flight?
Naja Chamberlain,
"Not at all."
Francis Lizama, Civil Aviation Department
"All onboard are well, I spoke to them. They actually commended the pilot, his excellent skill of getting to the ground here and landing the aircraft in a excellent situation."
Pilot Graham Allen has 8 years of experience.
The plane will remain under guard tonight and tomorrow engineers and Civil Aviation Department staff will go there to figure out how to move it.
