
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                    TAG: 9406080585 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D5    EDITION: FINAL   
SOURCE: NORFOLK 
DATELINE: 940608                                 LENGTH: Short

AIRPORT CLOSES FOR HOUR

{LEAD} AIRPORT CLOSES FOR HOUR: A runway at Norfolk International Airport was closed for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon after a plane carrying dashboards for the Ford truck plant here was damaged while landing.

The front landing gear of the twin-engine turboprop Beechcraft Super 18 collapsed when the plane touched down, driving the two propellers into the runway, state police spokesman T.A. Rice said.

{REST} The incident occurred at 4:57 p.m. and forced closure of the runway for an hour and 10 minutes, Rice said. Neither the pilot nor the co-pilot - the only people aboard the plane - were injured.

The plane, owned by a Lansing, Mich., company, had come from Columbus, Ohio. It sustained about $10,000 worth of damage, Rice said, but its cargo was unscathed.

{KEYWORDS} ACCIDENT AIRPLANE

by CNB