Innsbruck Airport

Luck in an incident with a small aircraft

Scared minutes on Saturday at Innsbruck Airport: a single-engine aircraft took off, although there was still a so-called tow bar on the nose wheel. In the end, there was a big sigh of relief.

The 85-year-old local pilot took off his single-engine plane at 12.59 p.m. on a flight to northern Italy. On board were two male passengers (55-year-old Austrian and 58-year-old Italian).

Tower sounded the alarm
Shortly after take-off, on the section of the route between Innsbruck and the Schönberg toll booth, he was informed by the tower via radio that the approximately one meter long "drag fork" was still attached to the nose wheel, so he aborted the flight.

At Innsbruck Airport, a closure was subsequently arranged and the fire and rescue services were put on standby. The landing went off without any further incident, only the fork was bent on touchdown. The aircraft itself was probably not damaged.

Investigations were initiated against the pilot on suspicion of endangering physical safety.

Aus dem Polizeibericht

Runway closure lifted
The runway closure was lifted again at 13:24. The aircraft involved has already been released by the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office and the air accident investigation authority. Investigations have been initiated against the pilot on suspicion of endangering physical safety.