A small plane made an emergency landing short of the runway Tuesday afternoon near Dulles International Airport.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement Tuesday evening that at about 4:40 p.m., the pilot of a single-wing 1977 Cessna radioed air traffic control at Dulles to say he’d had an engine failure and wasn’t going to make it to the runway. Virginia State Police identified the pilot as Aaron Adams, 28, of Texas. He was the only person on the plane.
Adams was flying from New Jersey to Dulles and landed north of the airport. He tried an emergency landing on a strip of private property on the 21500 block of Megawatt Drive in Ashburn. He was able to land but did not have enough space to stop, and he struck a dirt embankment, state police said. There was no fire, and Adams was treated for minor injuries.
The crash site is on the sprawling campus of a data center with several buildings and a nearby elementary school, said WTOP’s Dick Uliano, who reported from the scene.
The pilot of the single engine aircraft made an emergency landing here in Ashburn in a field far short of the runway at Dulles airport the pilot survived the landing @wtop pic.twitter.com/gQyclmGz5f
— Dick Uliano (@DickUliano) February 22, 2022
Before darkness fell, the plane could be seen on a narrow embankment, its belly burrowed into the soft ground.
The airports authority added that the airport was running as usual. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation and Safety Board have been notified.
WTOP’s Dick Uliano reported from Ashburn, Virginia.
