Airplane crashes at Dyersburg Municipal Airport

A twin-engine Cesna 310 aircraft crashed on landing at the Dyersburg Municipal Airport Thursday afternoon when its right landing gear collapsed. No one was injured in the accident.

Jim Carter, a pilot from Johnson City said he was flying the airplane to California and had decided to stop in Dyersburg, refuel and eat at Mary Lou's Restaurant. As he touched down for a landing, Carter said the landing gear light on the console indicated the wheels were down and locked; but as the right wing wheel touched the asphalt, it buckled causing the wing tip and right propeller to strike the pavement. The airplane slid off to the western edge of the runway finally coming to rest on the grass about 30 feet from the landing strip.

No one was injured in the incident.

The city's emergency services department helped lift the Cesna so it could be towed to the hangar area. It will remain there for several days pending an investigation of the Federal Aviation Administration into the cause of the wheel's collapse.

Carter said the aircraft had recently been repainted and sold by an owner in Johnson City to a buyer in California. He had been hired to make the exchange.