aviation

File photo

UPDATED 8:50 p.m.

A plane owned by Zeliff Aviation skidded off a runway while trying to land at an airport in Livingston County, Mich., today and according to news reports from the area, the pilot suffered only minor injuries.

The pilot was Pete Zeliff, owner of p.w. minor and a member of the Genesee County Economic Development Center Board of Directors. Zeliff is avid about aviation and owns planes and a helicopter, which are located at the Genesee County Airport. He annually sponsors an aviation summer camp at the airport for young people.

According to patient information at the University of Michigan Hospital, Zeliff is undergoing treatment but has not been admitted. A source said he was being kept for observation but is OK.

According to reports, Zeliff was attempting to land a Cessna 525C Citation at Howell-Livingston County Airport just before noon. The plane was unable to stop on the runway and it crashed through a barrier and across a roadway. The wings were torn off and the fuselage came to rest upside down.

One of the witnesses and first on the scene was a local mayor, Nick Proctor, who said he talked with the pilot and was told Zeliff had not been alerted to icy conditions on the runway before attempting to land.

Zeliff is active in the community on several fronts and rescued p.w. minor from almost certain closure a couple of years ago. He's invested heavily in the company since, created dozens of new jobs, returned manufacturing from China, and is helping to get a new retail shoe store open downtown. He also developed a subdivision of homes on the east end of Town of Batavia off of Route 5 called Oakmont.

A Cessna airplane have landing gear difficulties needs to make an emergency landing at the Genesee County Airport, according to the FAA facility in Rochester. Town of Batavia Fire Department is dispatched to the airport in case they are needed when the plane lands. Only the pilot is aboard and the plane is carrying five hours worth of fuel.

UPDATE 12:39 p.m.: Mercy medics are also responding.

UPDATE 12:41 p.m.: "You will observe a low-flying plane approaching the runway," says a dispatcher. "They are trying to get the landing gear down manually." The airport is located at 4701 E. Saile Drive.

UPDATE 1:09 p.m.: The plane safely landed with all three landing wheels touching ground. Mercy medics are back in service, along with Town of Batavia. (There are three sets of landing wheels on the Cessna, in front, on left, and the right of the fuselage.)

Top photo is of the pilot and plane heading to the hangar. Photo above, seconds after a safe landing.

The Cessna passing over the airport for a visual inspection of his gear by ground crews.

The pilot with ground crew members looking over his plane shortly after being pulled into the hangar.

The pilot declined an interview request, but he could be heard telling a member of the ground crew when his cockpit door was first opened, "that scared the shit out of me."

The pilot, safe in the hangar. He was flying from Batavia to Rochester when he experienced a problem with his gear and returned to Batavia for a possible emergency landing. The gear functioned properly on landing.

A pilot dusting a sweet cornfield off Brooksville Road in Alexander this morning spotted a wire stretched over the field and his attempt to avoid it led to the crash of his plane.

Officials say Louis C. Christie, 48, of Stephentown, was unhurt in the 10:30 a.m. crash.

Christie attempted to avoid the wire by maneuvering quickly to go under it, but his plane bottomed out and a prop was damaged. When Christie attempted to make a turn over trees at the south end of the field, his plane stalled and dropped to the ground.

The fuselage of the plane was largely undamaged and Christie climbed out easily, walked to the roadway and awaited the arrival of emergency personnel.

The plane was a 1974 Piper Pawnee D Spray Plane.

FAA inspectors were called to the scene and the accident is still under investigation by the FAA and the Sheriff's Office.

Ninth- and 10th-graders from throughout the GLOW region are invited to the WNY Aviation Adventure Camp, July 7 through 13 at Genesee County Airport.

The cost of the camp is $345, which includes meals and overnight bunking in the camp's hangar at the airport.

The deadline for registration is JUNE 22.

The camp includes:

• Taking the controls from the pilot's seat of an aircraft in flight
• Completing an FAA approved 16-hour private pilot ground course
• Participating in the inspection and repair of aircraft
• View military aircraft at the Buffalo Naval and Serviemen's Park and Museum
• Visiting the Geneseo Air Show
• Going behind the scenes at the Greater Rochester International Airport and receiving a briefing from the TSA
• Touring the USAF's 914th Airlift Wing in Niagara Falls and its fleet of C130 Hercules aircraft.

Participating students will be kept busy from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day with these activities and more, with each evening ending with an aviation-themed movie, such at "Top Gun," "The Memphis Belle," "Apollo 13" and "The Tuskegee Airmen."

For more information, visit the WNY Aviation Adventure Camp Web site.

Photo: Pete Zeliff, left, who is hosting the camp in his hangar with his fleet of aircraft, which includes a brand-new Bell helicopter, and Eve Hens, one of the organizers. Zeliff is holding his 4-year-old grandson, Owen, who won't be at the camp, but wanted to in the picture.