STATESVILLE, N.C. — Statesville Regional Airport has reopened to air traffic after a plane made a belly landing Monday afternoon, according to the airport.
The plane made the landing around 12:30 p.m. Photos shared by the airport showed the aircraft sitting on the runway. The aircraft appeared to have problems with its landing gear forcing it to land on the underside of the plane's fuselage, which did not appear to be held up by wheels.
Emergency officials responded to the landing. No one was injured. Runway 28, where the landing occurred, reopened around 2:30 p.m.
This plane travels frequently between Tennessee and Statesville, according to publicly-available flight logs. It is listed by the FAA as a Piper fixed wing single-engine aircraft originally manufactured in 1974.
Statesville Regional Airport, known to pilots as KSVH, is a general aviation airport owned by the city of Statesville. It has a single, 7,003 foot runway. The airport's website lists several NASCAR teams among the airport's frequent fliers.
About 100 aircraft are based at the airport, according to the city's website. Data from 2022 shows the airport supported over 7,000 flights to 47 different states that year.
In an unrelated crash late Sunday night, the pilot of another small aircraft experienced a scary situation in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The pilot, the only person onboard at the time of the crash, was not injured when a Cessna 172 crashed in a neighborhood overnight
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