Advertisement

Teenage pilot makes emergency landing with vintage plane on St. Petersburg golf course

 
The vintage plane clipped one wing on a tree in an emergency landing Saturday in St. Petersburg. No one was injured.
The vintage plane clipped one wing on a tree in an emergency landing Saturday in St. Petersburg. No one was injured.
Published March 8, 2016

ST. PETERSBURG — A fairway became an airway Saturday afternoon when a vintage plane piloted by an 18-year-old made an emergency landing on the 12th fairway at the St. Petersburg Country Club.

The plane was one of a trio flying from Lakeland to Manatee County, but it had begun experiencing mechanical problems. The teen's father, in one of the other planes, recommended landing at Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Rick Shaw.

However, the pilot of the 1939 Taylorcraft realized he couldn't make it that far and set down in the biggest open space he could find — a fairway near Cordova Way S and Caesar Way S in the Lakewood Estates subdivision of St. Petersburg.

While rolling to a stop, the pilot clipped a tree with one wing, but neither he nor his 17-year-old passenger was injured, police said. Neither was identified.

"He did a dang good job for an 18-year-old pilot," said Shaw, adding that the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified for an investigation.

Residents passing by on bikes, in cars and on foot stopped to check out the plane sitting in between two trees with yellow police tape surrounding it. Melissa Center, 34, stood with her friend, Cathy Lynch, taking photos with her phone.

"Thank God it was here and not in a house," Lynch, 48, said.

"Yeah, I can see my house from here," Center said, pointing down the street.

Neither saw nor heard the plane land, and several neighbors said they didn't even know something had happened until the TV news trucks showed up.

That's what drew Christian Miller, 18, to the golf course about 45 minutes after the plane landed, thinking it was a fire at first when he saw a ladder truck and police cars. After learning no one was hurt, Miller, who studies journalism at Lakewood High School, whipped out his camera and started taking photos.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said.

But Patty Danler, who lives across the street from the fairway, said this wasn't the first time a plane has landed not only on the golf course, but also in that exact spot.

According to Tampa Bay Times archives, 47-year-old William Gibson was flying over the neighborhood Dec. 24, 2009, when the engine gave out on his singe-engine plane, an advertisement for a local crab restaurant flapping behind it. One of the wings clipped a tree, and the aircraft came to a stop near the 12th hole, just as Danler, 61, remembered. Gibson made it out with only a minor hand injury.

Danler said she was mystified that she didn't hear or see the planes coming down either time.

"They sneak in," she said. "I don't know what it is about that spot."

Contact Kathryn Varn at (727) 893-8913 or kvarn@tampabay.com. Follow @kathrynvarn