AIR CRASH RESCUE NEWS:-----
January 18, 2003 - Test Jet Slides Off Paine Field Runway
EVERETT, Washington (USA) - - A reproduction Messerschmitt 262 jet aircraft on a test flight slid off the runway at Paine Field Friday.
The pilot, Wolfgang Czaia, escaped injury, and the plane appeared to have sustained only slight damage, airport director Dave Waggoner said. The first of five reproductions of the World War II German jet fighter, the two-seat aircraft experienced a landing gear failure as the pilot landed at about 3 p.m. and slid 300 feet off the main runway after the left main landing gear collapsed, Waggoner said.
Officials at the airport, also known as Snohomish County Airport, closed that runway, but two others remained open and flight operations were not affected, he said. "From looking at it, it doesn't appear to be much damage," Waggoner said, adding that repairs may require structural work on the landing gear.
The mishap caused no damage to the runway, he said. The Friday test flight was not the plane's first, Waggoner said. The aircraft is part of the Me 262 Project, in which a group is building five of the reproduction planes next to Boeing's wide-body airplane factory.
The one that crashed is the first to be completed. It made its maiden flight on Dec. 20. The plane is to be sold for about $2 million this spring to a retired judge and lawyer in Phoenix, who plans to use it in air shows.
A second plane is under construction and is about a year from completion. That plane is destined for the Messerschmitt Museum in Munich, Germany. The reproductions are modeled after the German version and look, but are made with new parts and more modern engines.
