A Cessna 172 light aircraft landed on its fuselage yesterday morning at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri after the pilot reportedly forgot to deploy its landing gear.
According to reports from Timehri, the aircraft, bearing United States registration N662NA, left the Point Salines International Airport in Grenada around dawn yesterday for the journey to these shores.
It was making a technical stop at Timehri at the time of the incident and was expected to continue onward to Brazil after refuelling.
According to a source, the aircraft which had only the pilot on board approached Runway 24 at the airport for the landing. It was observed by Air Traffic Control personnel and persons at the airport that the aircraft’s landing gear was not deployed however it was too late as the pilot made the landing on the aircraft’s fuselage more than 2000 feet along the 7500 feet runway.
The aircraft touched down at 10:30am, this newspaper was told.
The pilot escaped the incident with minor injuries and members of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) stationed at the airport raced to the scene as the traumatized pilot walked away from the aircraft.
Aviation sources told Stabroek News that the aircraft is referred to as the Cutlass 172 RG, the latter signifying its retractable gear system which was introduced to the type of model by Cessna in 1980. According to a source, while approaching for landing, the pilot would have observed warning signals from the aircraft’s instrument panel and he would have been able to make the necessary adjustments before touchdown. However, it was noted that he could have confused the signals with another which signifies a stall.
Reports are that the incident resulted in several delays for incoming and outgoing flights as the aircraft remained on the primary runway for hours. Sometime after lunch yesterday the Cessna 172 was towed away to the old GAC hangar at the airport and an investigation has been launched by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) into the incident.
Runway 24 was subsequently reopened to normal traffic.
The incident occurred two days after the anniversary of the Caribbean Airlines Boeing 738 aircraft crash-landing on Runway 24 last year.
Investigations into that incident are on-going and according to a source, the findings are expected to be made public in the coming weeks Preliminary reports into that incident pointed to pilot error.
