Plane leaves Chandler, makes emergency belly landing at Fresno Yosemite International Airport

A pilot was forced to make an emergency “belly” landing on a runway at Fresno Yosemite International airport on Sunday afternoon.

The pilot and a passenger departed from Fresno Chandler Executive Airport, in the single-engine plane when they had trouble reseating the plane’s landing gear. He tried to fix the problem in air, flying around Chandler for 30 minutes, before heading out to FYI, according to Brian Price, battalion chief with Fresno Fire, which had crews on scene at the landing.

The pilot alerted the air tower and got permission to use a cleared runway to make the emergency belly landing. Upon landing, the plane skidded about 100 feet before coming to a stop. The plane remained intact and both the pilot and passenger left the plane without injuries, Price said, though both were checked by EMS and transported to Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center for further evaluation.

The runaway was blocked for about an hour while the aircraft was towed away, but there was no impact to airport operations, according to airport spokesperson, Vikkie Calderon.

Some passengers did report delays.