Airport officials were surprised to find an abandoned aircraft “resting with its nose down in the grass beside a runway” earlier this week.
Interestingly, the pilot was missing, and it was evident that the damaged plane, a small 1972 Cessna Skyhawk, had veered off the runway following a rough landing on Tuesday.
The unoccupied Cessna N20392 was spotted around 5 am at Naples Municipal Airport in Florida, during a period when the airport’s control tower remained closed from 10 pm until 6 am.
While staff tried to unravel the mystery, more questions arose when security personnel claimed to have seen two individuals exiting the plane at the airport shortly after it landed in the middle of a grassy field, apparently unharmed.
Robin King, the airport’s communications director, informed FOX4, “This morning around five o’clock, we discovered an aircraft in the field. Our security cleared two individuals from the airfield overnight. They were unharmed and left the area; that’s all we know.”
FlightAware data revealed that the plane circled over Fort Myers multiple times before landing at Naples Airport, Florida, at 2:40 am. The runway had to be closed after the plane was found, but normal operations resumed after the disabled aircraft was removed from the field by 6:30 am.
In a separate statement to WINK News, King described the situation as “unusual and a mystery.” The pilot, identified as 24-year-old Brianna Brown, reportedly returned later in the day after the plane had been taken to a hangar for inspection.
Lt. Bryan McGinn from the Naples Police Department mentioned that the pilot had slid off the runway and had notified the staff about the incident.
According to King, it seems that Brown had rented the aircraft from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and flown it to Naples. An incident report has been filed by the police, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been informed for further investigation.
Brown, from Fort Lauderdale, was unharmed and is cooperating with the investigation. It remains uncertain if Brown or the other individual on board, whose identity is unknown, will face any charges.