Crash on Cheyenne Avenue puzzles aviation officials

Investigators are still looking this morning into why a small private plane crashed on Cheyenne Avenue Saturday a short distance from the North Las Vegas Airport.

Two men, one 26 years old and the other 27, suffered serious injuries in the crash, but they had been upgraded to fair condition, a University Medical Center nursing supervisor said Sunday afternoon.

The plane, a single-engine Cessna 172, went down on Cheyenne just north of the airport about 2 p.m., crashing on its third attempted landing.

"What we know for sure is that on its third landing attempt the plane touched the ground on the runway and then bounced up," Clark County Aviation Department spokesman John Hanks said. "When it bounced, the wing caught on the chain-link fence running between the airport and Cheyenne."

After hitting the fence, the plane tumbled through the air before landing upside-down on Cheyenne, witnesses said.

Hanks did not know why the pilot had unsuccessfully made two landing attempts before crashing on his third try. He said the investigation has been taken over by the National Transportation Safety Board.

At the time of the crash the wind was blowing at about 14 mph from the south end of the airport, according to the National Weather Service.

The plane was registered in Victoria, British Columbia, but Harks could not confirm whether the pilot and passenger are Canadian.

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