Two Mooney Incidents in Two Hours

Sunday was not the best day for the pilots of two Mooney aircraft at opposite ends of the Commonwealth. 

Sunday morning around 11:30, Virginia State Police said it received a call about a plane that crashed at the Chesapeake Regional Airport.  Police said the pilot of a 1997 Mooney MK20J did not put down the landing gear when attempting to land.  According to officers, there was only minor damage from the crash, and no one got hurt.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration were on site to investigate and to remove the aircraft from the runway.

Just two hours later in far Southwest Virginia, a different Mooney had to abort its takeoff and ran off the runway at Virginia Highlands Airport in Abingdon.  According to a family member of the pilot, this aircraft didn’t get enough lift to takeoff safely.  The pilot proceeded to slow down the plane and it ran off the runway.

There were no injuries in this incident either, and the aircraft was towed back to the taxiway.