But Then, Pilot Says He's Done This Before

When fire broke out behind the instrument panel of Dan Marnell's Piper Cherokee Six, he didn't panic. The reason? This wasn't his first rodeo.

"Well, it's happened to me a couple of times before, when I was in the Air Force," he told the Hazleton Standard-Speaker.

"It was a small fire behind the instrument panel. I'm not sure what caused it. Something shorted out," he said.

Perhaps it was Marnell's calm handling of the situation that saved the day. He and his wife were on a flight from Atlanta to Wilkes-Barre, PA, when the fire began filling his cockpit with smoke. He lost his radios and started looking for a place to land. He found one in Hazleton, PA.

The aircraft filled with smoke before Marnell and his five passengers were able to extinguish the fire. Officials said he made his emergency landing without incident or injury.

"This proves how important this airport is. People sometimes forget that, but you're 20 minutes from Avoca and 30 minutes from Allentown," local pilot Tony Sidari told the Hazleton paper. "In cases like this, this airport can be a real life-saver."

Neither Marnell nor his wife were hurt in the incident, but it served as yet another example of how keeping your cool can get you out of a tough situation.

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 4888S        Make/Model: PA32      Description: PA-32 Cherokee Six, Six, Saratoga, Turbo
  Date: 05/26/2005     Time: 0118

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Minor

LOCATION
  City: HAZELTON   State: PA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ACFT REPORTED ON APPROACH, A FIRE WAS IN THE COCKPIT, CREW EXTINGUSHED IT
  AND LANDED WITHOUT INCIDENT, NO INJURIES TO THE SIX PERSONS ON BOARD,
  HAZELTON, PA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:    5     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:           Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: UNK

OTHER DATA

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance:

FMI: www.ntsb.gov