TSB investigates incident at Medicine Hat airport

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating after a small aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at the Medicine Hat, Alta., airport around 11:35 a.m. on Thursday.

The TSB describes the plane as a Beech 55 aircraft, owned by Super T Aviation, a small commercial airline operating out of the southeast Alberta community that offers charter services and flight training.

TSB investigator Mike Adam says the aircraft was on a training flight with a pilot and a flight instructor on board at the time of the incident.

He says upon returning to the airport the crew got a warning on board the aircraft that the landing gear on the nose wasn’t locking in place.

Adam says they made several attempts to manually lock it in place but were unable to do so, so they were forced to make an emergency landing.

Upon touching down, the landing gear collapsed and the aircraft came to rest on the runway.

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Once on the ground, the plane was met by emergency crews. Adam says there were no injuries, although the aircraft did sustain some minor damage.

Darren Niccolls tells Global News the plane started circling over the airport around 10:45 a.m. Emergency crews responded about 15 minutes later and shut down access to the airport.

Video he provided to Global News shows the plane making several passes over the airport before finally touching down and being towed away.

The TSB says it is not deploying an investigator to Medicine Hat but it will work with the airline, airport authority and first responders to investigate.

Super T Aviation says it is co-operating fully with the investigation.

The airline’s website describes the plane as a small twin-engine aircraft that seats up to six people.