Landing plane veers off runway at Sedona Airport, hits fuel truck2 min read

Photo by Erica Shumaker

On Sunday, around 8:15 a.m., three people walked away from a dramatically errant landing at Sedona Airport that damaged a fuel truck and an airplane parked on the ramp between the terminal and the runway.

Besides hitting the front of a fuel truck that was actively refueling a plane, the 4-seat Cessna Skylane’s impact tore one of the plane’s wing off, causing its fuel to spill onto the ramp. The plane came to a rest upside down about 50 yards from the fuel truck.

“There’s no fatalities and no fire, thank God,” Airport Manager Ed Rose said after the crash.

The Sedona Fire District responded to help secure the scene. Two people in the plane were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, and one was uninjured.

Rose said the plane was coming in for a landing from the southwest. During landing, the plane veered far out of the runway area toward the general aviation ramp where several airport users and workers were going about their business.

The plane that veered out of the runway area is the red and white plane flipped upside down in the background. Photo by Erica Shumaker

The plane took out a taxi light as it left the runway and headed toward the ramp. Rose said people in the area “scattered” as the plane approached. The propeller of the crashing plane cut into the wing of a plane on the ground, leaving a row of slashes in the steel, and also struck the tail of the plane, causing it to partially separate.

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The landing plane then struck the front of a fuel truck head on before it flipped and came to a rest upside down.

Rose said the runway was closed for about 90 minutes following the crash.

The Cessna was flying from Chandler Municipal Airport and is registered to a man from Rifle, Colorado.

The errant Cessna struck this plane as it veered into the airport ramp between the terminal and the runwat. Photo by Erica Shumaker

A few hours after the crash, the FAA cleared the airport to cleanup the scene. With the debris still strewn across the ramp and fueled soaked up with absorbent material, airport staff and others who were in the impact area at the time of the crash exchanged words and backslaps with the relief that comes after an adrenaline rush.

Scott Shumaker

Scott Shumaker has covered Arizona news since 2012. His work has previously appeared in Scottsdale Airpark News, High Country News, The Entertainer! Magazine and other publications. Before moving to the Village of Oak Creek, he lived in Flagstaff, Phoenix and Reno, Nevada.

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