Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Tennessee pilot walked away with no apparent injuries after his small plane crashed and burned Saturday afternoon at Tucumcari Municipal Airport.
Little was left of the small aircraft after it crashed and caught fire in a ditch a few hundred yards east of an airport runway. New Mexico State Police officers gathered near the crash site and were investigating.
Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer said the crash occurred about 1:45 p.m.
The pilot, who identified himself as Feiyu Chen, 59, of Memphis, said he was returning on a solo flight from a conference in Phoenix and was going to stop in Tucumcari for refueling. Chen said his aircraft bounced twice while trying to land on the airport’s runway. He gunned the engine in an attempt to go airborne again and circle around for another landing attempt.
Instead, Chen said the engine stalled, and the plane crashed. He saw smoke coming from his plane after the crash, popped open a side door and jumped out of the aircraft shortly before flames consumed it. He said he lost his luggage and cellphone.
After calling his wife and two children on a borrowed phone to let them known he was all right, he said he was thinking of hitching a ride to catch a commercial flight in Amarillo or Albuquerque. However, airport workers advised him to stay put in the airport’s lounge until state police and federal aviation authorities had questioned him.
More details will be in next week’s edition of the Quay County Sun.