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BREVARD -- A small aircraft made an emergency landing in the schoolyard at Brevard Elementary School late Thursday afternoon.
Brevard police say a pilot from Florida experienced an “engine blowout” when his plane was nearly 10,000 feet in the air. He told an air traffic controller that he did not think he could make it to Transylvania County Regional Airport, and he landed his single-engine Cessna in Brevard.
Richard Secord, 44, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., told police that he attempted to land on a private airfield across the street from the school, but saw a vehicle on the runway and children in the field. He was forced to land in the school’s empty soccer field.
He was flying to Roanoke, Va., and had stopped to refuel at an airport in Georgia, said Deputy Chief Shawn Miller of the Brevard Police Department.
Secord told police that about 45 minutes into his flight he heard a sound from the engine and “started losing oil pressure.”
“The local dispatch 911 center received a call (at 4:28 p.m.) from the Asheville Airport” in regard to a pilot attempting to make an emergency landing, Miller said. Four minutes later, the airplane landed in the soccer field.
Workers were baling hay across the street in the grassy private airfield where Secord had hoped to land. Orange spray paint and yellow flags on the elementary soccer field marked the spot of his initial touchdown, nearly 50 yards away from where his plane took a nose dive into another grassy slope.
The pilot sustained minor scrapes to his face, Miller said. No other injuries were reported, and Secord was alone in the plane.
“He’s doing fine, and he’s thankful there were no more injuries,” Miller said.
The pilot did an awesome job landing safely and away from people, he added.
Brevard Elementary School students finished their school year Tuesday afternoon.
Miller said that the pilot has been flying for a while and suspects his experience helped him avoid a dire outcome.
“This is the first time he’s ever been involved in a plane crash, and he hopes it’s his last,” Miller said. “He said he relied on his training at the time of the incident and he was very calm until he got out and realized what happened... He’s very happy to be in the condition that he’s in.”
Secord declined to talk to media on the scene.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the flight departed from the Paulding County Airport in Georgia and was traveling to Roanoke, Va.
Police secured the area and preserved the scene, wrapping the plane in a tarp, until FAA investigators arrive tomorrow.
Neighbors at the scene did not see the emergency landing, but flocked to the area to make sure their school was safe.
