Jet goes off runway, hits fence at Boulder City airport
An jet flown by a former Hungarian Air Force fighter pilot ran off the runway at the Boulder City Municipal Airport on Friday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in an email the aircraft crashed under “unknown circumstances.”
Preliminary reports indicate that the L-39 airplane crashed after landing at the airport, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said in an email. The aircraft, which sustained minor damage, ran off the runway and struck a perimeter fence.
The FAA said the aircraft is registered to Istvan Kalmar. Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Kalmar said, “The brake overheated … and it made the runway short.”
He said the aircraft ran off the runway and “badly pushed a fence over” but that “nobody even had a scratch.”
Kenitzer said local authorities reported that two people were onboard.
The L-39 is a single-engine military aircraft designed and manufactured by Aero Vodochody for the Czechoslovakian Air Force, according to airforce-technology.com. It was the first airplane to be powered by turbofan engines. There are numerous variations of the jet, which is generally used as a training aircraft for military pilots.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@review-journal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Blake Apgar contributed to this report.