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A 1979 Mooney four seat airplane is jacked up with the aid of a crane at the spot where it came to rest at the end of the Tillsonburg Municipal Airport runway after the landing gear failed to deploy around 10:45 a.m. on Sunday September 9, 2012.
Credits: CRAIG GLOVER The London Free Press / QMI AGENCY
TILLSONBURG, ONT -- Two people aboard a small plane that made a crash landing at the airport Sunday are lucky to be alive, police say.
A four-seat 1979 Mooney aircraft was travelling from Markham, Ont., to Tillsonburg Municipal Airport when it had trouble activating its landing gear about 10:30 a.m.
The plane, carrying a pilot and one passenger, eventually made what police described as a "crash landing," badly damaging the aircraft's drivetrain.
"Two people's lives certainly could have been lost today," Oxford OPP Const. Stacey Culbert said.
No one was injured.
Investigators believe the plane was mechanically sound before the landing and wouldn't rule out pilot error as the cause of the crash landing.
One of the airport's two runways was temporarily closed while a crew used a crane to remove the damaged aircraft.
According to Transport Canada, the plane is registered to Allan Spector & Associates Ltd., a Toronto-based geophysical and topographical surveying company.
Transport Canada was notified of the incident but won't be investigating.
