Scouts have bumpy landing

Scouts have bumpy landing

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Web Posted: 03/18/2007 01:39 AM CDT

Chuck McCollough
Express-News

Three Boy Scouts and their pilot walked away from a hard landing at
Hondo Municipal Airport on Saturday after part of the plane's landing
gear failed to lock in place, witnesses said.
"I'm glad to be down safe. I was really scared after I saw part of the
wheel fall off," said 12-year-old Eric Riegel.

He and fellow scouts Nathaniel Mayberry, 13, and Kirby Vandervort, 10,
all of Houston, were flying with pilot Thomas Skiles to earn their
aviation merit badges.

Dozens of other Scouts were present when the airplane started its
landing approach and it became apparent something was wrong, said
Nathaniel Mayberry's father, Luther Mayberry.

"My son and the other boys were on one of the last round of flights,
and we were on the tarmac watching the plane coming in when I sensed
something was not well, something was out of place," the father said.
"The wheels did not come down all the way and the pilot circled at
least once.

"As he came in for the belly landing, the emergency vehicles raced
toward the airplane, and I did, too."

Luther Mayberry, as he put it, "ran faster than I ever have before" as
his son, the other Scouts and the pilot quickly escaped the plane.

There was no fire.

Seconds before the plane came down, Riegel said, the pilot told his
passengers he would land on the grass next to the runway.

"Then there was a hard thump when we hit, and we got out fast. It was
about five minutes between the time we knew the landing gear wasn't
working and when we got down. It was really scary," the boy said.

Airport manager Timothy Fousee said a lever that locks the landing
gear in place malfunctioned. He said the Federal Aviation
Administration is reviewing the incident.