SPANISH FORK, Utah, June 25, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Three generations of one family were on a small plane that took off from Spanish Fork Municipal Airport Saturday afternoon, only to discover the landing gear was not functioning.
Lt. Cory Slaymaker, Spanish Fork Police Department, told Gephardt Daily the plane took off, probably in the 4 o’clock hour, with a grandfather in his 70s as pilot, and his son and two grandsons as passengers.
“After takeoff, they discovered the front landing gear wouldn’t work. It was stuck,” Slaymaker said. “They flew back and called the wife, who was still at the airport, and they flew over and she said they were right, the front landing gear was not deploying.
“So another individual in an airplane flew up alongside him to look at it, and they tried a few things to see if they could get the front landing gear to deploy, and it still wouldn’t deploy.”
Faced with the fact a landing would be rough, the pilot flew around the valley for about an hour, using up fuel to diminish that chance of a big fire if there was a crash landing.
The pilot returned to the Spanish Fork Municipal Airport at about 5:30 p.m., and landed the plane safely and without a fire, Slaymaker said.
“He landed without the front landing gear, and it damaged the front end of the plane, but there were no injuries.”
Amazing and great team work! Hurray for the pilot and his helpers (wife). Great story