WGNO

Landing gear falls from plane, crashes to ground at country club: ‘Found by a golfer who was out on the course’

A country club member in Gorham, Maine, reported the landing gear after "teeing off" on the seventh hole, a representative for the club says. (Gorham Police Department)

(NEXSTAR) – A plane lost part of its landing gear over a golf course in Maine, sending the broken equipment crashing to the ground on one of the course’s fairways, police say.

The incident took place Tuesday evening over the Gorham Country Club. The plane, a twin-engine Piper Navajo, was headed for the Portland International Jetport in Maine when the landing gear broke off. The pilot elected to return to MacArthur Airport on Long Island, New York, rather than continue to Portland.


The pilot performed a safe belly landing upon arrival back in New York, the Gorham Police Department confirmed.

“Just when you thought you have seen everything, things really do fall from the sky,”(Gorham Police Department)

Back at the Gorham Country Club, the landing gear was “found by a golfer who was out on the course.” The member reported it to the club’s management who in turn contacted police, according to a supervisor at the Gorham Country Club.

“Nobody saw it fall, that we know of,” she said.

Police later shared images of the landing gear on Facebook, along with photos of the indentation it left on the fairway.

“Just when you thought you have seen everything, things really do fall from the sky,” wrote the police. The department added that it was thankful there were no reported injuries as a result of the incident, both on the ground in Maine and back at the airport in New York.

“There were 2 miracles in this event,” police said.