ADA TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A small plane delivering cargo for Federal Express has crashed about six miles north of the Grand Rapids airport.
The pilot walked away unhurt and no one on the ground was injured.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman says the single-engine Cessna 208 crashed about 8:35 p.m. Friday in Kent County’s Ada Township.
FedEx spokeswoman Sally Davenport says the pilot was headed from Traverse City to Gerald R. Ford International Airport when he made an emergency landing.
The Grand Rapids Press reports the plane lost power and headed for an open field.
Its left wing was sheared off by trees before touching down while going about 90 mph.
Davenport says the plane belongs to CSA Air Inc., which carries freight under contract with Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx.
FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says investigators are headed to the scene.
I was also in Grand Rapids on Friday working. I bring my scanner along when I work down there and heard on the police frequencies something about a FedEx plane crashing in this ladies back yard. I immediately went to FA to try to get some more information but couldn’t find any, got busy and forgot all about it. I forgot that Iron Air is under contract with FedEx and was looking for a FedEx flight.
That’s great that no one was seriously injured.
Just watched the video from WOOD-TV and saw a reference to FA!
The newsreader said FedEx does about “52 of these flights a day.” Uh, I think he’s way off! FedEx has hundreds of the contracted Caravan flights operating each weekday. The printed article next to the video was more clear:
The plane was contracted out by CSA Air, whose Web site said the company is an express cargo carrier that services Michigan and several other Midwest states. It operates 29 aircraft, has about 52 scheduled flights a day and is located in Kingsford in the Upper Peninsula.
Just looking at the photos looks like this guy did a good job with the large treeline that appears to be somewhat upwind of the final approach course. I guess those short field over a 50ft obstacle maneuvers are there for a reason.
I don’t know if anyone else caught the witness’ quote when we said 'we were just going to jump on the tramp".
Good ending though, too many times for whatever reason the aircraft is unable to make a ‘safe landing’, safe enough to walk away from, not neccesarily on the landing gear. The airplane is designed to fly, keep it at best glide don’t panic and you’ll usually walk away.
Best glide speed is a good idea to get to the safest landing area you can find, but you wouldn’t want to make an emergency landing at that speed. Injuries are directly proportional to speed when you hit something, so the slowest possible speed to put it down safely is what you want near the ground.
won’t argue. I wasn’t really refering to the point right before landing, but rather when you first realize that you’ve lost power and the panic starts to set in and next thing you know you’re at stall speed and the horn starts going off
