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No injuries in plane crash near Longmont airport

A plane comes in for a landing above a small plane that crashed this morning in a barley field near the Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, according to police.

Photo by Paul Aiken

A plane comes in for a landing above a small plane that crashed this morning in a barley field near the Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, according to police.

Two men walked away from the “controlled crash” of a small plane Wednesday near Longmont’s Vance Brand Airport, police said.

Neither the pilot, Brian Higley, of Longmont, nor his passenger, Robert Matlacki, of Westminster, was injured in the crash, which happened just after 10 a.m., Longmont police Cmdr. Craig Earhart said.

There was minor damage to the four-passenger, single-engine Beechcraft plane, Earhart said.

He said the pair was returning to Vance Brand from Utah when their plane experienced a mechanical engine problem just short of the runway.

“They knew they weren’t going to make it,” Earhart said, so they decided to land in the empty field.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the engine failure.

Comments

Posted by Flatirony on July 23, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Comin' in hot!!

Posted by THEinORY on July 23, 2008 at 3:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

"Roger roger tower, we're gonna try a belly flop today."
"I said touch-n-go!"
-crash-
"our bad"

Posted by thecondoguy1 on July 23, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I got a letter from the airport cause the neigbors griped I was to close their homes, must have been, they got my tail number, I wonder if this guy will get a letter.....

Posted by tig57 on July 23, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

-Goose?
-Yeah, Mav.
-Does that look like Longmont to you?
-No, that's a field, Mav. Did you fall off YOUR booster seat again!!!!! (mumbling)shortsciencetologisthackactor.

Posted by nuggethillrd on July 23, 2008 at 5:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Vkberlin, I totally agree! And close down all the roads and highways too, because cars make noise. When Longmont (Brand), Boulder and Erie, operated for many many years, they were surrounded with farm land. Rather than blame the people who fly out of existing airports, why don't you blame the developers with no scruples, who buy up farm land cheep because it is near an airport, build a bunch of houses, then let the people who move into to them who don't even do the basic research to figure out that they are buying near an existing airport before making such a major investment, yell and scream and hopefully get the airport shut down, raising the value of the land.

Posted by mcman on July 23, 2008 at 7:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I would like to send a letter to the neighbors complaining about the noise created by their whining.

Posted by motiff on July 23, 2008 at 9 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I was in Boulder a few weeks ago when a plane towing a glider came over. Holy s**t! Man, now THAT was obnoxious! YIKES!

Posted by thecondoguy1 on July 24, 2008 at 8:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Small airports are partialy funded by the US government, and viewed as a necessary and efficient part of our national security system, much like the interstate highways, private pilots keep them operating...............

Posted by prosnow on July 24, 2008 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Minor Damage? That Plane is totaled.

Posted by Guli on July 24, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)

You people have to be the biggest whiners on the planet. I guess money and moving to a place that you think belongs to you entitles you to a world that serves you and only you.

The glider planes are all equiped with low noise producing props. They run a route that tries to avoid congested areas as much as possible. Airplanes generally depart east bound out of boulder so they don't fly over town and on landing your not pulling any power.

Just take a deep breath, accept the fact that airplanes and cars are not going anywhere and try to keep out of traffic before you become the next pancaked biker on the street.

Life is a compromise...you don't get everything your way.

Posted by stvrainkid on August 2, 2008 at 7:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)

What's your vector, Victor?

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