ELIZABETHTOWN — Two officials with the Federal Aviation Administration were walking the runway at the Curtis L. Brown Jr. Field on Wednesday morning after a phone call on Tuesday reporting a plane crash.
“Three people were on board, a pilot and two passengers,” said Dan Kelly, an aviation safety inspector for the FFA out of their Greensboro office. “The plane that crashed was a Cessna 182.”
The crash, believed to be the first at the airport in at least a couple of decades, occurred around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, with the plane making a hard landing, causing the landing gear to fold up. One of the passengers was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with injuries, said Trooper Matt Young.
The Highway Patrol did not identify those on board. Information on where the flight began and was intended also was not released.
The airport is expected to reopen by 11 a.m. on Thursday after the debris clean up Wednesday. The flight was a local flight.
“If there have been any other plane crashes they were before 2002,” said Mitch Taylor, the manager for the airport.
The Cessna 182 crashed with three inside, a pilot and two passengers, and was a total loss.
Parts were strewn on the end of the runway and in the grass near the crash site.
Debris is still on the site outside near the end of the strip.