Student pilot crashes plane into Farmington police department

A single-engine airplane crashed into the Farmington Police Department
Thursday night, but everyone, including the pilot, survived.
A student-pilot was the only person aboard the six-seat plane when it
crashed into the building just after 7 p.m. Thursday.

Police say ten inmates in a holding area at the department were safely
transferred to the San Juan County Detention Center.

Fire Marshal Herb Veazey says the student-pilot suffered head and facial
injuries but was conscious when he was transported to San Juan Regional
Medical Center.

"There's some structural damage inside the building a lot of glass and
debris strewn about...bent and twisted I-beams inside the office area," says
Veazey. "We have a lot of fuel leaking down inside the building."

Farmington police say the student-pilot was practicing take-offs and
landings at Four Corners Regional Airport. It has a runway about 400 yards
from the department.

"I was pulling into the back entrance of the police department when a plane
was on coming on a north western approach to the airport and appeared to
have lost power and fell straight into the north end of the building of the
Farmington police department," says Sgt. Hardy.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the airplane, a Beechcraft Bonanza,
apparently lost power before the crash.

The plane crashed into the roof at the station's detective area. Two
detectives in the building escaped without injury.

Authorities worked through the night to remove the remarkably intact plane
from the roof of the facility.



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