https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2024/09/26/pilot-safely-lands-plane-without-nose-landing-gear-anc/(pretty cool customer)
By Joe Allgood
Published: Sep. 26, 2024 at 1:10 AM EDT|Updated: 3 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Seven people and a dog were unharmed in an emergency crash landing at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Tuesday after the nose landing gear of the aircraft malfunctioned.
The passengers of the Dena’ina Air flight credit the pilot, Doug Ferguson, for calmly handling the situation and landing the plane.
The flight was a routine one, slated to move through several villages to deliver supplies and pick up passengers. Upon approaching Anchorage, Ferguson said he realized the nose landing gear was malfunctioning and notified controllers of the issue.
“After 46 years, it’s like nothing,” Ferguson said. “You can’t think about it; if I sit there and thought about what could happen any day, I mean, it’d drive people crazy, it’d drive me crazy. So, you don’t think about stuff like that. You know, it’s just like a normal day at work.” The plane was initially scheduled to land at Merrill Field but ultimately had to divert to ANC so that Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) could respond.
Passengers Shannon Jones and Roxy Meneguin said Wednesday that for the most part, they could not tell that much was wrong with the plane at first. Ferguson kept them informed and stayed calm, they said.
“He told us enough, what we needed to know,” Jones said. “Exactly what we needed to know, to not freak out any more than we already were. And it was actually, I thought, not as bad as what we expected.”
Ferguson flew around for about an hour before eventually landing in the hope that the landing gear might drop, and to decrease the amount of fuel in the plane before crash landing.
Upon landing, Ferguson tried to keep the plane on the back two landing gears for as long as possible, before the nose eventually tipped forward and made contact with the ground. ARFF said it responded to look for fuel leaks or hazards but found none.
Passengers exited the aircraft as quickly as possible and were takenoff the runway by Dena’ina Air. No one was injured and the plane was towed off the runway.
