PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Two more small planes were forced to make emergency landings in Arizona this week, the latest in a series of emergency landings raising safety concerns across the state.
Five emergency landings have occurred in just over one month. Thankfully, no one has been seriously hurt, but aviation experts are wondering what’s to blame for the trend.
Friday night, a pilot
made an emergency landing in a field in Sun Lakes. Only hours before that, engine trouble led to
another emergency landing on a Tucson street.
Recent incidents
Last weekend, a small plane’s engine stalled,
forcing it to land on U.S. 60. It nearly hit a pickup truck with a family of four inside.
At the end of April, a mechanical issue caused an emergency landing on a Mesa roadway. In mid-April,
another emergency landing occurred on 7th Street due to engine problems.
Three aviation experts weighed in on the incidents.
“The fact that this has been happening more often, I don’t know if the actual statistics support that,” said Tim Kiefer, assistant professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Possible explanations
One theory is that the public may just be seeing and hearing about incidents involving aircraft more often.
Join the Conversation
3
“Because everybody has a camera and because everybody’s on social media, a lot of these events are being brought to the public in real time,” Kiefer said.
Another possibility is that Arizona skies are filled with pilots in training.
“Arizona is the flight training capital of quite literally the world. People from everywhere come here to learn. So when you have new pilots in aircraft learning to fly, they’re going to have incidents and accidents,” said Steven Devine, owner of Fly Aero Angel Flight Training.
Aging aircraft could also be a factor.
“The aviation fleet is getting older. They’re not producing airplanes anymore like they used to,” Devine said. “As these planes get older, they’re going to have problems.”
All three experts agreed that full investigations into each of the landings will reveal whether this is a concerning trend or a series of unfortunate coincidences.
“I am concerned about the numbers. So we need to start looking at, are there common threads to all these things?” said Cary Grant, assistant professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Kiefer said the FAA and NTSB will investigate the landings and will use artificial intelligence to analyze the reports for common factors.
