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OMAHA, Neb. (KPTM) — Benny Salz got more than he bargained for Friday.
“It was super sudden.”
Video he took from his cell phone shows a plane off the runway at Eppley Airfield. He was inside that plane when it skidded off.
“It almost felt kind of confusing. Did this really happen?”
Salz was landing in Omaha from Las Vegas on what turned out to be an icy afternoon. Crews had to shuttle passengers 15 at a time into the airport. That’s when passengers got a look at what really happened.
“I saw that the plane was completely sucked into the ground.”
The manager of airline affairs for Eppley Airfield, Steve McCoy, said Friday the airport fire department, airport police department and first responders from the Omaha Fire Department and Omaha Police Department assisted with the situation. McCoy said there were 156 people on board. He added workers at Eppley did all they could to keep the runways in respectable condition.
“Airport crews had been working on the airfield since the beginning of this winter event.”
Another passenger, Patrick Forrey, was also on the flight. He shared with us pictures of the plane. In two of those pictures, it’s easy to see the skidmarks in the snow. In spite of that, he says nobody panicked.
“Everyone was calm, cool and collected,” said Forrey.
Remarkably, nobody got hurt.
As for Eppley Airfield, it is now back open to travelers. Airport officials say the National Transportation Safety Board will look into what actually went wrong. Right now, however, most NTSB employees are furloughed due to the partial government shutdown.
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