A FedEx plane crashed during landing at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport, Texas,yesterday morning. The two pilots were not seriously injured in the accident, US media reported.
At approximately 4:37 AM local time, the ATR-42 twin turboprop aircraft operated by EmpireAirways under contract to FedEx and inbound from Fort Worth Alliance airport was landing when itcrashed approximately 1,000 feet before it should have landed. The cargo plane burst into flamesbut emergency personnel were able to quickly douse the flames, the local TV station KCBD-TV inLubbock reported.
The two crew members, a man and woman whose names weren’t released, were taken to UniversityMedical Center with relatively minor injuries, various US media reported. One of the injuredpilots, a 52-year-old man, was in satisfactory condition while the other pilot, a 26-year-oldwoman, was treated and released.
There was a light drizzle of freezing rain during the landing when the plane skidded off therunway, but it is too early to know exactly what led to the FedEx crash. However, airport officialssaid weather was not a factor although runways at the Lubbock airport were closed due to icyconditions on Tuesday with deicing under way. The National Transportation Safety Board will beinvestigating the FedEx plane crash, and the plane will remain in place for two days during thatinvestigation.
According to FedEx spokesman Jim McCluskey, shipping operations in Lubbock would continue asnormal, though packages on the plane would not be touched until a federal investigation of thecrash was completed. “Access is restricted until that investigation is concluded and then we canactually get in there and remove packages that can be salvaged,” he said.
The crashed aircraft was operated by Empire Airways, based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, undercontract with FedEx. “It was the first time the company had a crash with that type of turbopropplane”, an airline spokesman said. Empire had a fatal crash in Washington with a smaller plane in2001.
