A twin-engine turboprop airplane slid off the side of the runway at the Durango-La Plata County Airport shortly after 7 p.m. Monday closing the strip to arriving and departing aircraft likely until Tuesday morning.
Two men were aboard the cargo flight, a contracted crew for United Parcel Service, and they were uninjured. Interim Aviation Director Tony Vicari said he did not have their names.
Vicari cautioned against speculating about what caused the plane to slide off the runway. However, the airport was reporting one-eighth of an inch of snow on the runway when the incident happened, about 7:06 p.m.
“It would be easy to say it was the weather, the snow, but I don’t know that, and you don’t know that. It is up to the FAA to determine the cause,” Vicari said.
The plane, a Beechcraft C99, is sitting about 50 feet off the east side of the runway, and on Monday night, airport crews were in the process of determining how best to clear the disabled craft. The Federal Aviation Administration has been contacted, and the agency gave its approval to clear the craft, Vicari said.
“To my knowledge, the plane did not leave the ground,” he said.
The airport did not have an estimate on how long the airport would be closed, but Vicari expected the closure to extend through Monday night.
“We’ll be working diligently to get the airport open Tuesday.”
The safety area surrounding the runway extends 250 feet on either side of the center line of the runway and 1,000 feet from either end of the runway.
Vicari said an airplane in the safety zone, requires closure of the runway.
An American Airlines flight scheduled to arrive at 9:15 p.m. was canceled. A United Airlines flight from Denver scheduled to arrive at 8:06 was listed as delayed, but likely canceled, Vicari said.
In addition, a flight slated to depart to Denver at 7:35 p.m. was listed as delayed, but again was likely to be canceled, Vicari said.
The storm while not unique for Durango did present challenges, Vicari said.
“It was like any storm. Their were variable periods where it would clear. Then there were periods where it was more difficult to keep up with,” he said.
patrick @durangoherald.com
