The plane sits on the grass having veered off the runway in St. Barths after crash landing on Friday morning. (Photo courtesy Guadeloupe Premier)
MARIGOT—A single-engine Piper 28 R crashed while landing on the runway of St. Barths’s Remy de Haenen Airport on Friday morning at around 9:30. Fortunately the accident caused no injuries.
According to information from colleagues Guadeloupe Premier the four occupants, three passengers and the pilot, were shaken but unhurt.
Video surveillance footage from the Col de Tourmente shows the plane approaching at a high altitude then descending sharply then sliding along the runway with smoke trailing from the rear, raising suspicion the landing gear did not deploy.
The pilot was Michel Fauconnier, President of the flying club “Les Ailes Guadeloupéennes.” The plane has since been towed away from the runway. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Pilot and certified flight instructor Ariel Weiss told The Daily Herald it was clear from the video the pilot was too high and his speed too slow, causing the plane too stall.
“It appears he did remember to bring the landing gear down, and it was down, but the horrible landing he did was because the aircraft stalled without enough forward speed and he didn’t add enough power to correct,” Weiss explained. “The right-side landing gear broke on impact. That’s why the aircraft veered off the run way to the right because the left side landing gear was still intact.”
