The father of a pilot who was killed after her plane crashed into a potato processing plant with a large chimney has urged authorities to close the nearby landing strip.
Brittney Infanger, 30, was flying UPS packages from Salt Lake City in Utah to Burley in Idaho when her plane crashed into the Gem State Processing Plant in Heyburn, Idaho, last week.
Her father, Jim Bob Infanger, told local press that his daughter had 11 years of flying experience.
“There’s a 60-ft chimney sticking out of the food processing plant – no lights on it, dead centre – straight across the runway. So whenever you come in, you have to fly over the top of this and drop down,” he said.
He added: “The airport needs to be closed, period. I’m a pilot myself and...many pilots have told me how unsafe the Burley Airport is and how they’ve begged the county to relocate it.”
“They’ve allowed this potato plant to continue to expand and this chimney comes on and has a huge amount of steam. If the wind is blowing...you fly right into this wall of steam,” Mr Infanger said.
However, Heyburn police and Minidoka County Sheriff’s Office have said that the pilot was flying too low while attempting to land.
The federal aviation administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched an investigation into the crash.
The “heartbroken” family of the pilot are now looking for answers.
Mr Infanger said: “On a typical flight in, you have to go over the top of these obstructions and then quickly drop down to get on the runway that’s right at the edge of the river. So it’s a very, very technical airport to come into.”
He continued: “Our mission is to get the Burley Airport closed. We don’t think it’s safe for pilots going in and out.”
Mr Infanger doesn’t officially know what happened but suggests she might have “hit a bird on the way down” and the coroner thinks the aeroplane wing might have hit the chimney, causing the plane to flip.
The Minidoka county coroner is expected to release more information about what happened on Thursday or Friday, according to the Heyburn Police Department.
The pilot’s father and mother have accused Cassia County officials of keeping the Burley Airport in operation despite reports of difficult landings from pilots.
“She just lived her dream. She loved to fly. She was very adventurous,” her mother said, according to Fox News.
“Brittney loved flying more than anything,” her sister Emily Goodrich added.
The pilot’s funeral will be held on 23 April.
