No injuries reported after plane crash-lands at Petaluma Airport

A longtime flight instructor was teaching a student the logistics of landing an airplane when they had to crash-land their small aircraft on its belly at Petaluma Municipal Airport, police said.

Ed Dalbec and his student, Mary Pappas-Elliff, were standing outside the Cessna airplane unharmed when officers arrived just before 11 a.m. Monday, Petaluma Police Sgt. Nick McGowan said. The pair had taken off from the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport and intended to end their flight class at the Petaluma airport, he said.

The landing gear was never engaged, McGowan said, and the plane slid nearly 700 feet across the runway.

“The plane eventually just slowed to a stop near the end of the runway and no one was injured,” McGowan said. “I have had to report on a couple of fatal crashes during the past few years, so they were extremely lucky.”

After an initial assessment, McGowan said they discovered the landing equipment was not deployed.

“The student had practiced landings before multiple times, and this time they were testing a different speed with a new wing angle,” McGowan said.

Dalbec of Cloverdale is a retired United Airlines plane mechanic. A past president of the Cloverdale Pilots Association, he has taught dozens to fly.