Stall Practice Ends When Engine Quits

A Piper Cherokee reportedly practicing stalls near Bedford Airport in Massachusetts experienced an engine failure and made an emergency landing on  I-495 Tuesday morning. Both the pilot and passenger walked away dazed but unhurt, but the aircraft suffered significant damage.

File Photo

FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot, 24-year-old Matthew Kleindienst of Stoughton, was either practicing or demonstrating stalls. Kleindienst is a CFI, but it was not immediately determined if his passenger, 21-year-old Brian K. Souza of Stoneham was a student or just along for the ride. In any case, Peters said Kleindienst had not done anything wrong. "The engine quit as he was practicing and he couldn't restart it," Peters told the paper. "It wouldn't be unusual for a pilot to be up there -- any pilot -- to practice. There's nothing wrong with what they were doing."

I-495 parallels the runway of Bedford airport, but again, Peters said it was not wrong to land on the highway. "There's not a prohibition in terms of landing on a public highway in an emergency situation like this," he said.

The Cherokee is owned by East Coast Aero Club. The club's owner, Mark Holzwarth, said he had rented to Kleindienst before without incident. He said he was reasonably certain Kleindienst had performed his pre-flight checks properly. We don’t suspect any system issues," he told the Globe. "As far as I know, the airplane was in fine condition before he left. But like anything mechanical, you can turn the key and hope everything continues to work. Sometimes it doesn’t."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov