Small plane makes emergency landing in Mesa canal
MESA, Ariz. - No one was seriously hurt when a plane went down Tuesday morning in Mesa.
The small plane went down on Oct. 18 in a canal west of Greenfield and McKellips Roads.
The Mesa Fire and Medical Department said the pilot was the only person who was on board. The pilot was able to get themselves out of the plane and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The plane was pulled from the canal just before noon.
"First, you gotta look around and see what the area is and your safest place to go down, and you gotta then fly the plane – first thing fly the plane because if you let it stall, you're dead," said Mike Barry, a pilot who lives nearby.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.
Camera captures plane landing in a canal
Surveillance video from the All American Waste Services building captured the impact.
Linden Fish works next to where this all went down.
"The plane sputtered, it’s losing power, you hear a plane sputter," Fish said.
The surveillance video captured it crashing into a canal, feet away from power lines and busy McKellips Road.
"They pulled him up. He’s just sitting in the chair with the paramedics, and I’m like, I don’t know if anyone else is in the plane, but he looks pretty good," Fish said. "It was pretty neat to just know a tragedy was averted today."
As it was towed away, the damage to the front of the plane was clear.
The canal is run by Roosevelt Water Conservation District. When asked if there were any environmental concerns about the crash and potential leaks, the agency said this water is only for agriculture and industrial nonpotable use, so it’s not headed into any water treatment facilities.
A plane went down in a canal in Mesa on Oct. 18. One person on board self-extricated, firefighters said.