According to a report from the Portland Press Herald, landing gear weighing about 100 pounds broke off a twin-engine Piper Navajo plane on Tuesday evening. The plane’s wheel hurtled from the sky and landed on the seventh fairway at the Gorham Country Club’s golf course in Maine.
The outlet reported the Gorham Police Department received a call about the fallen wheel at approximately 6 p.m. that night from the country club. The wheel, estimated to weigh about 100 pounds by responding officers, was removed from the facility just before 8 p.m. for inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Photos posted of the incident reveal that the massive wheel left a large circular divot in the grass on the golf course.
The Gorham Police Department posted about the incident on their Facebook on Wednesday. “Just when you thought you have seen everything, things really do fall from the sky,” the office joked.
Police also wrote that “there were 2 miracles” to come out of the incident. “Number one, nobody was struck by this falling object when it fell on the 7th. fairway from the sky. Number 2, the plane was able to do a belly landing and landed safely in Islip New York.”
The Piper Navajo is the latest plane in recent memory to have made headlines for its aircraft issues. Last week, a teenager managed to safely land a banner plane on a New Jersey bridge after reporting issues with the plane’s engine. He was the only person on board at the time of the incident.
In May, two airplanes flying over Cherry Creek State Park, southeast of Denver, collided as they positioned themselves to land at Centennial Airport. Fortunately, those aboard the two small planes managed to walk away uninjured.
In February, an engine on a United Airlines plane heading to Honolulu from Denver caught fire mid-fight, causing debris to land in Colorado neighborhoods. Residents caught in the midst of the fallout compared it to the sight of UFOs coming to earth.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the airplane was originally slated to land at the Portland International Jetport, but after losing the landing gear, the pilot returned to New York and landed safely at the Long Island MacArthur Airport.
A spokesperson for the town of Islip confirmed with Newsweek the plane performed its emergency landing “on its belly” at MacArthur Airport.
“At approximately 6:45 p.m., a Piper Chieftain P31 experienced a gear issue and landed on Runway 24. The aircraft had five people including the pilot on board,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also noted that while “airport fire rescue and local fire and ambulance services responded to the scene,” no one on board presented with any injuries.
“The aircraft was removed from the runway, which reopened after a few hours,” the spokesperson added, noting that the investigation has since been turned over to the FAA.
Newsweek reached out to the Gorham Police Department, Gorham Country Club and FAA for additional comment on the situation, but did not immediately hear back in time for publication.
As of July 13, data collected by the FAA has shown a startling increase in investigations related to unruly airline passengers over the past year. The agency has received 3,420 reports of unruly passengers, have initiated investigations into 555 of those instances, and has so far proceeded with 80 enforcement cases.