A tense moment in the skies over Waterloo Region ended with sighs of relief as a plane was able to land safely Monday afternoon.
Pascal Gosselin was the pilot and sole occupant of a five-seater Cessna P120 he was flying from Montreal to Breslau.
Up in the air above southern Ontario, Gosselin realized he had a problem – his landing gear refused to release.
“I tried a bunch of maneuvers to get the landing gear out – manually, putting some G-force on it – it wouldn’t come down,” pilot Pascal Gosselin told CTV.
The pilot’s first call was to his mechanic back home in Montreal, who made several suggestions, but not of them resulted in a successful deployment of the landing gear.
After that, Gosselin updated the Region of Waterloo International Airport control tower on the situation. Airport officials provided their own suggestions.
“He stayed in the air for 45 minutes more to try and rattle it down,” said airport manager Chris Wood.
With fire crews from Breslau and Maryhill now on their way to the airport, Gosselin brought the plane down, trying to pull off a controlled landing without his landing gear.
“It didn’t work. Ultimately he ended up putting his nose onto the runway,” said Wood.
It wasn’t a perfect landing, but it did allow Gosselin to get out of the plane safely and without injury.
The same couldn’t be said for the Cessna itself, which will need a new engine and propeller.
Still, Gosselin sees nothing that can’t be fixed.
“It’s just bent metal. She’ll be flying again,” he said.
“That’s what you have insurance for.”
CLARIFICATION: When this story was originally posted, an image of an aircraft not involved in this incident was inadvertently attached to the story. A correction has now been made, and CTV News regrets this error.
