Sarah Chantal Rovner, 22, of Houston made an emergency landing this evening in Conroe. Rovner who has had her pilots license about three months and had just over 100 hours of flying time was doing some night ops for the Civil Air Patrol. Besides volunteering her time with the Civil Air Patrol, Rovner works at Huntsman Chemical in the Woodlands. Leaving West Houston Airport she was going to land at Conroe. About six miles out she lost complete power in the aircraft. Hoping to glide into the airport she notified the tower of her situation. The tower in turn notified Conroe Fire Department and also several pilots with the Army Reserve unit at Conroe Airport. They were also doing night ops and were about to land. They immediately started a search grid.
It was then the call came in that Sarah was unable to make it to the airport. Instead she found the next most suitable runway.Landing to the west into the wind she touched down on East Davis at tenth street and continued rolling west. The aircraft caught one power line to a billboard at the Dollar General but she continued and turned westbound in the eastbound land of 105E at 6th. There the wing ripped down the DO NOT ENTER sign. A short distance later she was met head-on with a vehicle and was forced to divert to her right, shearing a wing and causing a minor fuel leak.
EMS crews checked Rovner who was uninjured and didn’t really seem shook over the events. Conroe Fire Department Haz-mat crews pumped the fuel from the wing tanks.
Just after midnight Tommy’s Wrecker Service loaded the plane after the wing was cut off and returned it to Conroe Regional Airport.
The 1979 Cessna 172 is owned by the United States Air Force and assigned to the Civil Air Patrol.
On May 26, 1948, Congress passed Public Law 557 permanently establishing Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force. Three primary mission areas were set forth at that time: aerospace education, cadet programs, and emergency services. They are mainly tasked with locating downed aircraft.
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