DALLAS - A plane honoring the Tuskegee Airmen during an event commemorating Black History Month landed with its gears up at a Dallas airport Wednesday morning.
Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the “belly landing” at Dallas Executive Airport around 10:30 a.m. There were no reports of a fire resulting from the landing, and no one was injured.
An unknown number of occupants on board the P-51C Mustang aircraft were already exiting the plane when DFR units arrived at the scene, according to DFR spokesman Jason Evans.
“Pilot and squadron leader Bill Shepard was uninjured,” according to a statement from the Commemorative Air Force, the organization behind the flight. “The aircraft sustained substantial damage, but we will start the restoration process shortly.”
The Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron is a non-profit organization that calls itself “America’s tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen.” The group is dedicated to educating people nationwide about the country’s first black military pilots who fought in World War II.
The plane that landed wheels-up at DEA Wednesday was a restored World War II-era P-51C, the aircraft commonly flown by the Tuskegee Airmen.
Other Black History Month events would continue as scheduled, according to the CAF.
