Horizon Flight Turns Back, Lands Safely On One Engine

Sat., March 29, 1997

By Andrea Vogt andreav@spokesman.com

A Horizon Air Dash 8 en route to Seattle was forced to land just minutes after takeoff Thursday morning after losing power in one engine.

The 13 passengers and three crew members on Flight 2179 returned to Pullman safely on one engine, but Horizon’s Pullman-Seattle service was disrupted for the remainder of the day because the same plane is used for both flights.

According to Pat Zachwaieja, Horizon Air’s vice president of marketing and planning in Seattle, the aircraft was just 500 to 600 feet off the ground when the crew received indications of the power loss.

“The procedures call for a precautionary shutdown of the engine, which they did and returned to Pullman without incident.”

When the engine faltered, Pullman resident Walter Dryfoos was peering down at his home. Then he saw the plane’s propeller stop spinning.

“After (the pilot) got it leveled he said, ‘Obviously we are having a little trouble and we are going to land,”’ Dryfoos said.

Dryfoos, vice president of the WSU Foundation, the university’s fund-raising arm, wasn’t the only passenger forced to cancel a business trip. Though everyone stayed calm in the air, Dryfoos said, several were agitated about missed connections.

Zachwaieja said engineers working on the plane still weren’t certain what caused the loss of power, but they suspect the engine may have ingested a large bird.

“It’s not something we like to see happen but there are proper safety procedures to follow. That’s why we train and that’s why there are two engines.”

, DataTimes

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