An aviation incident that took place in Colorado’s mountains on January 13 involving a Cessna 750 owned by a company out of North Carolina thankfully resolved with no injuries.

According to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, a private plane was landing at Telluride Regional Airport around 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday when a strong, gusting cross-wind reportedly hit the side of the plane as it touched down. This shoved the plane off of the runway, with the plane skidding about 300 yards before coming to a halt on collapsed landing gear. While the plane sustained damage to its left wing and nose wheel during the incident, the two pilots and a passenger on board were reportedly fine, said to have no injuries. Occupants were able to exit the plane without assistance.

An investigation into the incident is underway, and it may highlight a risk that comes with flying in Colorado’s mountainous terrain – strong and unpredictable winds.

At 9,078 feet above sea level, flying into and out of Telluride Regional Airport comes with a slight uptick in risk as there’s not much margin for error given cliffs that are near the runway. A video of what the landing at Telluride Regional Airport looks like can be found here – and it’s easy to see how a windy day might make this a bit worrisome.

To help prevent overruns – when a plane is unable to take off prior to reaching the end of the runway – the airport utilizes ‘EMAS Safety Bed‘ technology. This is a special section of track put that the end of a runway that’s designed to stop a moving aircraft by adding major resistance to the rolling of the landing gear. As a plane moves onto the safety bed, it collapses into the ground, swallowing the lower portion of a wheel and slowing the roll to a stop. Think about it like a type of runaway truck ramp commonly seen in Colorado’s mountains, which slows the roll of an out-of-control truck as the tires sink into gravel.

 In 2019, more than 9,000 aircraft operations took place at the site – averaging 26 per day. Accidents can happen – as they did when two died in a crash that occurred while on approach to the airport in 2020 – but they are few and far between.

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