'It was a miracle'
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Jet skids off runway into Hyannis shopping center; no one hurt[/size]
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By LORI A. NOLIN
and K.C. MYERS[/size]
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STAFF WRITERS[/size]
HYANNIS - A turbojet aircraft carrying four people skidded off a Barnstable Municipal Airport runway while attempting to land last night, crashed through a fence, crossed Route 28 and stopped in the middle of TJ Maxx Plaza.
No one on the plane or on the ground was injured.
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Similar accident in 1989: On Jan. 20, 1989, a Dassault-Breguet Falcon 900 carrying four persons skidded off a snow- and slush-covered runway in South Bend, Ind. No one aboard was injured.
An investigation showed the plane's reverse-thrust mechanism, which is key to slowing the aircraft after landing, had failed to engage and the plane was propelled down the runway by the forward thrusting engine.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board showed the failure was due to a manufacturing or design problem. The agency issued two mandatory service bulletins in 1989 calling for repair of the reverse-thrust mechanism.
[/size]The plane, bound from LaGuardia Airport in New York, was attempting to land shortly after 6 p.m. It carried a chain-link fence across Route 28. Police said the aircraft did not hit any cars on the busy highway, although the uprooted fencing did hit an undetermined number of cars.
The plane was attempting to land in the midst of a storm that had dumped snow and sleet on Cape Cod all day. The wind at the time of the accident was from the north-northeast with gusts of more than 30 mph.
"It was just too slippery," said Jay Logan, a flight mechanic and engineer who was on board the plane. "We couldn't stop. It slid off the runway and went through the fence. It didn't hit anybody; we were very fortunate. It was touchdown and there was no braking; it was poor."
Richard Bunker of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission said weather may have been a factor, but said he could provide no specifics until the National Transportation Safety Board starts an investigation today.
Bunker said he could not provide information on the condition of the runway at the time of the crash.
The plane will probably be towed today, Bunker said. An environmental cleanup company is working to contain several hundred gallons of jet fuel spilled in the parking lot, Bunker said.
The airport remained closed last night after the accident.
Shivering, Logan sipped black coffee inside Osco Drug while police spoke with the pilot outside.
Logan, from Chicago, said the plane had just arrived from LaGuardia, where he, two other crew members and a passenger had been on business. He declined to give details of the business.
"Your weather is worse than it was there (in New York)," he said. "It was clean when we left." He said the crew was returning its passenger to Hyannis where the man lives with his family. "Our main concern was our passenger, and he's fine," said Logan.
[size=-1]A Falcon jet rests in the TJ Maxx Plaza parking lot last night in Hyannis after sliding through a fence surrounding Barnstable Municipal Airport. The accident caused the plane's wings to partially collapse. [/size]
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(Staff photo by Vincent DeWitt) [/font]
Logan said he was on the telephone arranging ground transportation for the passenger when the incident happened. From inside, he said, he did not hear the noises witnesses described as "heinous" from the ground.
The plane, a Dassault Mystere Falcon 900B, is owned by 200 PS Aircraft Holdings Inc., according to Federal Aviation Administration records. It has three turbojet engines and can carry 12 people. They are generally privately owned corporate planes.
The area along Route 28, bustling with numerous shops and restaurants, is known to be very busy even on its slowest days. Last night, the parking lot was filled with cars, shoppers and the nearly 18-ton plane in the middle.
Diners ran from restaurants and employees emerged from stores, surrounding the plane, while traffic flowed through the parking lot, on Barnstable Road and on Route 28.
"This is just chaos," one Barnstable police officer said,
Mike Simpson, 24, on leave from the Navy and visiting from Connecticut, said the flying fence just missed his car. "I slammed on my brakes and the last piece of fencing went along the front of my car - it's a rental car," he said. "I immediately pulled over, popped my trunk and grabbed my medic bag. That's when I saw the fuel leaking."
Like many at the scene, Simpson said he was just waiting for an explosion as the smell of jet fuel grew stronger.
"Thank God there were no sparks or anything," he said.
Simpson immediately began ushering people away from the scene and helped evacuate nearby Mitchell's Steakhouse in the middle of a Saint Patrick's Day party.
Helen Flint, Mitchell's hostess, said the restaurant was almost full of patrons enjoying corned beef and cabbage, lamb Wellington and shepherd's pie. Fearing an explosion, firefighters asked everyone to leave because of jet fuel flowing into a drain that leads to the restaurant.
"It's a killer," she said. "This was a really big night for us. It's one of our biggest nights of the year."
At Strawberries Music, employees and a customer watched as the store windows bowed in from the force of the wind as the plane came to a stop.
Kerri Leboeuf, 20, a store employee, said she is so used to planes flying overhead she usually tunes them out.
The sounds last night, she said, were louder and had an eerie kind of echo. "I thought the plane landed on us, so I kept looking up, " she said.
William and Sylvia King of Bridgewater said they were driving toward the Hyannis rotary when the sound of a plane landing became extremely loud.
"The plane was coming up along side of us, and then my wife screamed, 'It's coming right at us,'" said William King, 75.
King said he swerved into the Staples parking lot near Osco Drug, but not before a chain-link fence the plane was dragging struck the side of the couple's Camry.
The metal ripped the side of the car, taking off a side mirror. Sylvia King said the fence also struck the top of the car in front of them.
The police reported no injuries from the accident itself.
William King was later taken to Cape Cod Hospital, complaining of stress and high blood pressure.
"The plane crossed right in front us," King said. "Traffic was so bad. Do you know how close we came to death?"
Route 28 and several connecting roads were closed because of the fuel spill.
Bunker said it is possible the plane also damaged radio beacons on the airport property, but added that possibility was still being investigated.
