Pilot tells story of 2017 emergency landing near Kennebec Cafe, west of Durango – The Journal

Rob Flannery drove down County Road 124 before pulling into a parking lot

It was just an ordinary day of flying in the skies for private pilot Rob Flannery.

Until an engine failure forced him to emergency land his 8A Luscombe fixed-wing airplane on October 10, 2017, on County Road 124 near Kennebec Cafe, 12 miles west of Durango.

After nearly seven years, Flannery opened up about the incident in an interview with The Durango Herald.

Flying at about 12,000 feet, Flannery said he realized he had to make an emergency landing after his engine stalled. He looked down to see only power lines surrounding a possible landing zone.

After thinking about landing the plane somewhere along U.S. Highway 160, Flannery decided his best option was to aim for County Road 124, which accesses the La Plata Mountains. It landed on the southbound county road at approximately 40 mph.

After hitting the ground, Flannery managed to slow the plane to about 20 mph but had to go over trees on both sides of the road.

“There’s this poplar tree that (I thought) I’m not going to cross,” he said. “And it looked like Jesus was sitting in the right seat when one of the smaller branches of the poplar tree caught the light from the navigation system,” Flannery said.

The plane's navigation light was broken, but the wing remained unharmed during the emergency landing.

The plane's wing also narrowly missed a warning sign along the road, and Flannery drove onto the highway before maneuvering the plane into the Kennebec Café parking lot.

He remembers the reaction of customers when they saw the plane arriving.

“It was really funny because people were coming out of thin air,” he said.

His intention was to repair the plane on site, but when he realized there was a crowd there, it dissuaded him. He also realized that he would not be able to repair the plane on site anyway.

“I was trying to get the hell out of there so that when the cops came with questions, I wouldn't be there,” he said, explaining that he feared getting into trouble when he landed on a county road . “They never showed up. For what? Because it's legal and I was in the parking lot.

Despite the 2017 incident, Flannery said flying is safer than riding a motorcycle.

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