CONROE- Two men walked away from a plane crash at Lone Star Executive Airport around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. It was the county’s second aircraft emergency in four days.
The planes owner and co-pilot Bill Gibson said the experimental Van’s RV-10 aircraft began “running a little hot” and began losing power for unknown reasons.
The pilot managed to get the plane squared with the runway, but there was not enough power to land it, he said.
“We hit hard and the landing gear collapsed,” Gibson said. “We kind of skidded to a stop.”
The wings, undercarriage, engine and pop were damaged, but Gibson said the plane was repairable.
“The fuselage and tail are recoverable,” he said. “It’s just tough because I spent the last five years building this thing.”
“We only have about 55 hours on it and for something like this to happen, it’s kind of tough to take.”
The men were testing the plane because they were planning to take it to an air show in Oshkosh, WI next week.
The plane is a popular and proven design, Gibson said.
“It’s just one of those things, it got hot and quit making power,” he said. “We’ll just have to pick up the pieces.”
While upset over his plane, Gibson was thankful no one was hurt.
“With a low time pilot, we could have been killed,” he said.
The crash came less than a week after a 1946 Piper J3C65 airplane went down on the banks of the San Jacinto River in southeast Montgomery County injuring the pilot and his 11-year-old son. That incident occurred Sunday evening.
