Las Vegas NowA Second Plane Crashes Near North Las Vegas Airport

A Second Plane Crashes Near North Las Vegas Airport

A small plane carrying a pilot and two passengers crashed near a busy intersection in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon.  This is the second plane crash near the North Las Vegas Airport in the past three days.

The plane's engine apparently lost power, causing it to clip a couple of light poles and lose fuel, said police Lt. Clint Nichols. 

The plane's occupants were en route to Utah for a hunting trip when they crashed near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Jones Boulevard around 3 p.m.  The pilot told authorities that he made the choice to try and land the plane on Jones Boulevard instead of Rancho Avenue because there was less traffic.  The plane skidded across the road and hit a fence bursting into flames.  All three escaped the wreckage on their own.

The only damage to the area was that light poles were uprooted and some bushes were burnt by plane fuel, Nichols said.

"No houses, no nothing," Nichols said. "It could not have gone, for a plane crash, any better."

Traffic was temporarily brought to a halt in the area.

Another plane crashed on Friday in a vacant desert area about one mile short of the runway.  None of the six people on that flight were injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said the North Las Vegas Airport has the most minor mishaps of any similar size airport in the nation. 

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