A 39-year-old Jessup man landing his single-engine plane at a small Anne Arundel County airport yesterday afternoon crashed a half mile short of the runway in a wooded park in Laurel, but walked away uninjured.
Officials said possible engine problems may have caused the Cessna 172 to go down at 4:30 p.m. more than 100 yards north of Brock Bridge Road just inside the Prince George's County line. The pilot was attempting to land at Laurel's Suburban Airport.
"He tried to get there, but just didn't make it," said Pete Piringer, a Prince George's County Fire Department spokesman. "He complained about some sort of engine or fuel-line difficulties, but the plane wasn't on fire when we found it."
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were to arrive and examine the crash last night. Prince George's County officials would not release the pilot's name pending an investigation. The pilot's decision to land his plane in the Patuxent River Park may have saved lives, Mr. Piringer said. He avoided a nearby apartment complex and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
"Apparently he had several options of where to put the plane down," Mr. Piringer said. "He opted for this area as opposed to the busy B-W Parkway."
Emergency workers from the Laurel Rescue Squad, the Maryland City Fire Department and the Prince George's County Fire Department responded to the scene and found the pilot safe nearby.
The pilot said he wasn't injured. One of his plane's severed wings was found hanging from a tree in the park's woods, officials said.
Yesterday's accident was the second crash of a plane heading to Suburban Airport in five months. On Aug. 9, a Maryland City man's single-engine plane crashed into a house just north of the airport, leaving him with severe head injuries.