THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070628
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HARBINGER LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
A single-engine, five-seat airplane made an emergency landing on Route 158 Thursday after running out of fuel on its way from Kill Devil Hills to Elizabeth City.
None of the three occupants was injured and no accidents occurred as a result of the 2:20 p.m. landing, said Donnie Beacham, director of emergency services for Currituck County.
The plane, a 1966 Beechcraft Bonanza based in Indianapolis, had a faulty fuel gauge, said Sgt. Jerry Mumford of the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
Pilot William Hildebrand, 63, set the plane down and taxied it into a residential front yard about three miles north of the Currituck Sound bridge, officials said.
``He landed in traffic. He was timing it and putting it down between cars,'' Mumford said. ``He did an excellent job.''
Hildebrand, a flight instructor with nearly 45 years of experience, had flown down for a one-day trip with two students, Mumford said.
After the landing, a student caught a ride to the Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo and bought fuel. At about 5 p.m., after getting an OK from the Federal Aviation Administration, the refueled craft took off from a cleared section of 158 and headed to Manteo.
Officials, who had cleared about a half-mile taxiway for the takeoff, said traffic was delayed for only a few minutes.
``He took off without any problem,'' Mumford said. ``It went without incident, thank God.''
Thursday's landing was the second time in three months a plane has come down on a local highway. In late August a tour plane skipped across a moving car after its engine died over the Outer Banks.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE by CNB