3 Hurt When Aircraft Lands on US 95 Near Kyle Canyon Road
Three people were injured Saturday outside Las Vegas when a single-engine training school plane forced to land onto the southbound lanes of U.S. 95 was hit by a passing vehicle.
The pilot of the Diamond DA20-C1 model aircraft made an emergency landing onto the highway near Kyle Canyon Road at about 9:40 a.m., said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for Federal Aviation Administration.
Around the time the one-propeller plane landed, a driver of a passing SUV struck the left wing, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol.
The two people in the aircraft and the driver of the SUV, none of whom were immediately identified, were transported by Las Vegas Fire Department responders to University Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries, the NHP reported.
The FAA will be handling the local investigation into why the pilot had to make an emergency landing.
“It’s been classified as an accident,” said Peter Knudson, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. “We’ll be relying on the FAA for the on-scene documentation.”
The fiberglass, fixed-wing airplane, powered by a piston engine, is operated by a flight school, Chennault Flying Service, based at North Las Vegas Airport, 2730 Airport Drive.
After the collision, the two-seat plane ended up facing north on the shoulder of the right southbound lane of the highway.
Two workmen for the flight school arrived and started removing the craft’s expansive wings from the fuselage to ready the pieces for transport on a flat bed truck.
The Highway Patrol placed flares and cones for a brief time on a short stretch of the southbound lane of U.S. 95 near the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, but traffic appeared little affected.
The owner and registered agent of the flight school is listed as Joe Chennault, according to the Nevada secretary of state’s website.
The plane was manufactured by Diamond Aircraft, based in Austria, in 2000, according to the FAA’s website.
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