A large piece of landing gear broke off a plane mid-flight on Tuesday. In Gorham Country Club, the wheel was slammed into the fairway on the seventh hole. Although the aircraft had the proper equipment, it had to make an emergency landing on the course. The golf course in Maine has a new hole after the incident took place.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the twin-engine Piper Navajo plane fell off a landing gear weighing about 100 pounds Tuesday night. An airplane wheel fell from the sky and landed on 7th Street at the Gorham Country Club in Maine. The aviation officials communicated to NECN that a two-engine plane took off with five passengers when the right wheel and stanchions collapsed. The aircraft was on the ground when the incident came to light on Tuesday night.
During the flight, the aircraft was headed for the International Jetport in Portland, Maine, but turned around and landed on Long Island, New York. No injuries were reported. According to reports, the aircraft’s landing gear fell off course as it was heading to the Gorham Country Club in Portland, roughly 10 minutes away from the Portland Jetport.
In an earlier report, the Gorham police said they received a call about 6 p.m. from the Portland Jetport saying one of the crew members had lost some landing gear. During a landing attempt at the Portland International Jetport, the aircraft experienced a wheel problem. Police estimated that the wheel weighed about 100 pounds when it was removed from the facility for inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Although the golfer did not see the wheel fall from the plane, he came across it.
Police Chief Ted Hatch of Gorham wrote on Facebook that “there were two miracles” in the incident because the plane “did a belly landing and landed safely” and “no one was injured by this falling object” when it fell from the sky over the 7th fairway. “When you think you’ve seen it all, things really fall out of the sky,” he said, along with pictures of the landing gear on the fairway and a large hole that was left behind. Pictures from the incident have been posted to the police’s Facebook page.
Planes from the Jetport frequently fly over the country club, and they had considered that anything could happen once or twice, though they never believed that aviation equipment would fall onto the course.
“I never thought that would happen,” the plane official said. “It’s just one of those strange occurrences. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
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