Westmoreland County Pilot Praised For Safe Landing
DERRY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- A Westmoreland County man is being called a hero after safely landing a plane in a Derry Township field.
Bill Wright, 74, of Greensburg was flying with a student last night when the plane experienced some sort of power failure about 2.5 miles from the airport.
Wright immediately began looking for a dark area away from town to bring the plane down. He navigated around houses and power lines and barely clipped a few trees on the way down. Miraculously, neither he nor his student was injured.
Wright has been flying for 55 years. He currently works as a flight instructor out of Westmoreland Aviation in Murrysville.
He was in good spirits about the ordeal and joked, "If this were a short landing contest, we would have won."
When asked if he would fly again he responded, "You're supposed to get back on the horse, right? I guess we'll see."
Owners of Westmoreland Aviation today praised Wright for safely landing the plane. Westmoreland County public safety officials called Wright a hero.
The FAA was on scene looking for an official cause to the crash. Hazmat crews were on scene removing gas from the aircraft.
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