Instructor And Student Pilot Survive Fiery Emergency Landing Near Jones Riverside Airport

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A flight instructor and student pilot survived an emergency landing in which their aircraft burned in a field about a mile south of Oaks Country Club.

It happened at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday near 41st West Avenue and 81st Street South,  three miles west of Jones Riverside Airport.

The Highway Patrol has identified the instructor as Jade Schiewe, 28.  The OHP says the student was Zachary Pfaff, 26.

The Tulsa Fire Department says the 1980 model 4-seat Cessna 172RG belonged to Spartan School of Aeronautics.

The airplane was on a training flight when the pilot noticed smoke and flames coming from the floorboard.

Schiewe called out Mayday to Air Traffic Control, reporting fire in the cockpit. The tower started clearing the runways in case the plane was returning, but Schiewe instead made an immediate emergency landing in a field two miles west of the runway.

"But any emergency landing where people are walking away from it is typically pretty good," said Bill French, Tulsa Fire Department.

The OHP says the plane was engulfed in flames just as Schiewe and Pfaff got out of it.

Tulsa Fire says Schiewe has second- and third-degree burns to his lower right leg but the injury is not life-threatening.

Pfaff was taken to the hospital as a precaution even though Tulsa Fire says he had no apparent injuries.

The crash started a grass fire which was extinguished by Tulsa Fire.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating. The fire will make investigation much more difficult because so much of the aircraft was consumed.