Makes Emergency Landing At Corpus Christi International Airport

A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon made an emergency landing Monday afternoon at Corpus Christi International Airport after an engine on the aircraft caught fire in flight.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that the plane was making practice approaches to the airport when the left engine caught fire. Airport officials said that such training approaches are a normal activity at the airport.

Airport marketing manager Kim Bridger-Hunt told the paper that she saw the aircraft in a nose-high attitude, and assumed it was taking off. But then she heard explosions and saw the flames coming from the engine.

Airport public safety director John Hyland said the airplane landed just before noon local time. Corpus Christi police and fire departments, the Nueces County Sheriff's Office and airport emergency personnel responded to the incident. The engine was shut down and the fire extinguished.

Operations were slowed at the airport for a time due to the incident, but returned to normal about 1300 local time, Hyland said. The P-8 was parked at the General Aviation ramp..

The Navy, however, said the airplane was not one of theirs. Liz Feaster, public affairs officer at Chief of Naval Air Training based at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, said it was not a Navy trainer at either Naval Air Station corpus Christi or Naval Air Station Kingsville. "We don't know where it came from and what it's doing here," she said.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.navy.mil