Cessna 172 Aircraft crashed at Bermuda International Airport
A local private Cessna 172 aircraft was on approach to the runway when the pilot experienced difficulty and landed short of the runway.
Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, Acting Lieutenant Russann Francis, reports “at 5:33 pm today, Monday, April 30, 2018, our Aircraft Operations Division received a call from the tower crash alarm system of the L. F. Wade International Airport.
“The pilot a 32-year-old female walked from the aircraft unassisted but was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. There were no passengers on board the aircraft.
“As a result of the crash, the runway shut down to allow for the aircraft to be removed. It was towed away from the scene by airport personal at 8:20 pm. The LF Wade International Airport has reopened
Divisional Officer Mark Taylor from the Bermuda Fire & Rescue Service said, “Approximately 17:33 or 5.33 pm this evening, we received a call of an aircraft that had crashed short of our runway at LF Wade International Airport runway 30.
“Our Airport Operations Division, along with Clearwater Resources, responded and were on the scene quite quickly. They found one aircraft with one person still on board – it was a pilot, but no passengers. A 32-year-old female from Blue Sky Aviation was still on board. Our personnel applied what’s called a foam blanket to mitigate any fire hazard.
“Our personnel extricated that pilot through forcible entry through the right-side door of the main cabin of the aircraft, took the pilot off the aircraft, and she’s now being transported to King Edward Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“This was a no-notice aircraft emergency, there was a routine flight that was in-bound back to Bermuda, she was doing a regular routine flight around the island and was due to land just after 5.30 pm this evening and she landed just short of runway 30.
“At this stage, it’s pretty early to speculate as to what caused it. We do have people from the Bermuda Department of Civil Aviation on their way and we will assist them with the investigation. So we do have qualified personnel on the island that are able and qualified to investigate aircraft incidents.
“When I say no-notice emergency, that means that there were no heads up, that this was just a normal flight operation, there was no reported malfunction with the aircraft at the time, and it just happened as the pilot was making maneuvers to land at runway 30 here at LF Wade International Airport.”
