Pilot instructor injured amid hard landing at Romeo State Airport
A pilot instructor had minor injuries in the aftermath of a hard landing of a single-engine plane at a small airport in Southeast Michigan, the Michigan State Police reported.
The incident happened about 7:45 p.m. Thursday at Romeo State Airport in Macomb County's Ray Township. The small public airport has one runway.
The incident was reported to Macomb County Dispatch Center as a plane crash, and when troopers arrived, they learned additional details.
The pilot instructor and pilot trainee had taken off from Oakland County International Airport in Pontiac earlier in the afternoon in a fixed-wing, single-engine, 1976 Piper Model PA-28-151, the police report said. They were logging flight hours for the trainee
But there was mechanical trouble: a cylinder cracked during the flight, which resulted in an oil leak inside the engine. This caused the engine to smoke.
They noticed the Romeo State Airport nearby, and the instructor decided to shut off the engine while attempting an emergency landing at that airport.
During what was listed in the police report as a "hard landing," the front landing gear broke off. The plane partially skidded off the runway before stopping.
The instructor had minor lacerations afterwards; the trainee was not hurt.
The airport was temporarily closed to prevent further landings during the on-scene investigation, and the crash was reported to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has assigned an aviation safety inspector to lead the investigation.
The airport has been reopened.