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An amphibious aircraft landed in the Bay near the Palo Alto Airport on Sunday morning around 11:30 a.m., according to Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman.

The pilot and a passenger were on board; neither was hurt, he said.

The plane, an Icon A5 and a prototype of an amphibious aircraft, was experiencing electrical issues and was landed out of an abundance of caution, Schapelhouman said.

The plane landed near Cooley Landing and triggered a full response by the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

Responders brought the passenger to safety by airboat, while the pilot remained with the craft, waiting for a boat to tow it back to shore, according to Schapelhouman.

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14 Comments

  1. There’s pretty bad history with these “Beta” Icons. The founding engineer crash his Icon at Lake Berryessa and died. A famous baseball player recklessly crashed in his Icon.

    I don’t want to be a snowflake, but the engineering practices needs to improve. Focus on no risk testing. Add better resilience and redundancy. If the designer or chief engineer died I think that says a lot.

  2. So if this actually occurred near Cooley Landing, why does the headline say Palo Alto Airport? To make it more Palo Alto-centric, as is the norm?

  3. @Hmmm (resident of East Palo Alto):

    I think the point is that the aircraft had to make an emergency landing and was unable to do so at the nearest airport: Palo Alto. It had to ditchin the Bay and required first responders to shuttle the passenger back to safety.

    If it had landed normally at Palo Alto Airport, San Carlos, even Moffett Federal Airfield, it would not have been newsworthy.

  4. > So if this actually occurred near Cooley Landing, why does the headline say Palo Alto Airport? To make it more Palo Alto-centric, as is the norm?

    Because EPA doesn’t have an airport.

    It is difficult enough just establishing reliable SAMTRANS bus service.

  5. How odd, we were walking by the PA Airport during that time, all the way to the end of the runway, even looked over to Cooley Landing and didn’t see any of this. I’m baffled.
    It was a nice day at the Baylands.

  6. Reader Reader Reader and Winifred – nice try, but neither of your reasons justified the silly headline. It’s more of this publication catering to Palo Alto-centrism.

  7. > Reader Reader Reader and Winifred – nice try, but neither of your reasons justified the silly headline. It’s more of this publication catering to Palo Alto-centrism.

    Listen Hmmm…I live in East Palo Alto & while the PA Weekly may be considered Palo Alto centric in your opinion, so be it. I don’t always agree with its journalistic direction either BUT until there’s an ‘East Palo Weekly’ learn to live it the headlines or ignore them. Simple as that.

    As for anything resembling an EPA airport, we’ve got enough educational, civic & community issues to be dealing with & besides, very few people here know how to fly an airplane let alone have the means to buy one.

    Palo Alto Airport is a recognized local landing & departure point for smaller aircraft.

    Just don’t errantly land a plane in EPA. Like bad drivers, there are some people who shouldn’t be flying planes either.

  9. I’m surprised that Virginia Chang Kiraly did not respond? Would she have responded as a Fire District Director or Harbor District Director? Still I don’t understand how she can have 2 elected positions in San Mateo County that cross jurisdictions? Oh well, in 2020, she up for re election in both at the same time.

    Pretty funny…..what will she do now, run for both?

  12. The landing gear wasn’t working as they tried to land at the airport so they landed close so that they wouldn’t have to drive far. They took it out at the redwood City port

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