Private plane crashes at Shreveport Regional Airport

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - The pilot of a small private plane made an emergency landing in a field off the runway earlier today at the Shreveport Regional Airport. Luckily, she only suffered minor injuries.

Emergency crews rushed to the site of that emergency landing in the far southeast portion of the airport property shortly after 10:45 on this Wednesday morning.

"What the pilot shared with authorities is that she had begun to have some engine trouble shortly after takeoff and during that engine trouble she put the plane down where she could," explained Fred Sanders, the assistant to the chief of the Shreveport Fire Department.

Authorities say the pilot of the small private plane was able to get out of the Cessna 172 on her own and was then taken to the hospital to be checked out for what's described as minor injuries.

Witnesses told officials what they saw in the sky before that emergency landing. "They said that she banked one way and then banked another way and then she began to land in the field," added Chief Sanders.

Airport spokesman Mark Crawford told us this is just the kind of scenario aircraft and rescue firefighting team train for all year long and said everything went the way it should have in terms of their response to this emergency landing.

"They were able to get in there, assess the situation, make sure the necessary precautions were taken and actions were taken to minimize the impact there at the scene."

Crawford explained that in situations like this the plane must stay in place until federal investigators look over the area and the aircraft thoroughly to figure out what exactly happened and why.

Once that's over: "Once it is we'll work with the plane owner and the insurance company typically, to have that aircraft removed from the airfield," concluded Chief Sanders.

While such emergency landings are not common we're told they do happen now and again.

In fact, Chief Sanders said they had a similar case last month at the downtown airport - in which the pilot walked away with no scratches.

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