Engine Trouble Forces Emergency Landing

A twin-engine cargo plane made an emergency landing at Burbank Airport on Thursday morning after the pilot noticed a malfunction with one of the engines, officials said.

Ameriflight Flight 1942 departed from Burbank Airport at about 5 a.m. and was on its descent into Ontario Airport when the pilot discovered the problem, said Karen Seagle, a company spokeswoman.

The captain--the only person aboard the Beech 99 turboprop freighter--turned the malfunctioning engine off as a precaution and returned to Burbank Airport where he landed the plane safely, according to Seagle.

The plane was taken to the maintenance hangar and tied down at about 5:45 a.m., said Burbank Airport spokesman Sean McCarthy.

Seagle would not specify the nature of the malfunction, but McCarthy said the engine’s throttle was stuck in the open position, according to an airport incident report.

The Ameriflight pilot returned to Burbank because the company does most of its maintenance there, Seagle said. The flight time from Burbank to Ontario is about 15 minutes, she said.

“This is certainly not an emergency,” McCarthy said. “It just was a precautionary shutdown of the engine--and the plane has two [engines]--and [the pilot] returned to where we repair them.”

There were no injuries reported in the incident, according to Seagle. The cause of the malfunction is still being investigated.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, standard protocol in emergency landings calls for the pilot to contact air traffic control. The pilot then determines the safest place to land, said FAA spokesman Mitch Baker.

“It’s the pilot’s call where they want to go,” Baker said.

Ameriflight delivers bank checks and notes, in addition to small packages, for couriers and shipping companies. Flight 1942 was on its way to Ontario to pick up a load of cargo, officials said.