Teen pilot on first solo flight 'freaked out a little bit' while preparing to land damaged plane

Teen pilot on first solo flight 'freaked out a little bit' while preparing to land damaged plane originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A teenage pilot who successfully landed her small plane after losing a wheel on her first-ever solo flight said she "freaked out a little bit" after someone on the ground radioed she'd lost the landing gear.

Maggie Taraska, 17, was on her first solo cross-country flight at her local airport in Beverly, Massachusetts, headed for Portland, Maine, when the possible disaster unfolded.

"I got really scared, nervous, obviously," she told ABC News. "I had done emergency procedures before, but you don't do them if you lose a wheel. No one really thinks that's going to happen to them. And I mean, I was all by myself so I was just terrified."

PHOTO: A single-engine plane with a missing wheel sits in a hangar after it was landed at Beverly Regional Airport in Beverly, Mass. by Maggie Taraska, 17. (WCVB) More

It was no less scary for her mother, an Air Force veteran, who was on the ground watching.

“It's nerve-wracking to see your kid up there and you're helpless and just hoping for the best that everything would work out,” Christine Taraska told ABC News in a phone interview.

“I knew it was a dangerous situation. So I was nervous.”

Her daughter, who had been flying for three years, was attempting her first cross-country solo flight when the right main wheel of her small aircraft broke away.

Taraska said that it was only a few minutes after her daughter’s single-engine Piper PA28 took off from the Beverly Regional Airport when the part broke off.

Luckily, a pilot on the ground spotted the broken part fall off the plane.

“It was probably less than five minutes. Because there was an airplane on the ground that saw the part fall off,” she said. “That airplane contacted the tower and then the tower contacted Maggie. So it was probably less than five minutes.”

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But earlier this week, the light-hearted teenager described her experience at a Boston press conference.

PHOTO: Flight instructor John Singleton, center, walks outside Beverly Regional Airport in Beverly, Mass. on Sep. 10, 2018. Singleton helped to talk Maggie Taraska, 17, down during her emergency landing the previous day at Beverly Regional Airport. (Boston Globe via Getty Images) More

The reporters wanted to know how she managed to keep her cool and land the plane.

“I think I panicked a little, just less than most people would," she responded with a laugh, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.

When the part fell from the plane, the pilot on the ground reported it to the control tower, which contacted Taraska in the sky.

Air traffic control contacted her instructor, John Singleton, who assisted her through radio to overcome the challenging landing situation.

“Maggie, this is John. How are you doing?” Singleton could be heard asking through radio traffic, according to WCVB.

“I'm OK,” Taraska replied.

“OK, you're doing a great job flying the airplane,” Singleton responded. “Keep doing what you're doing. We're going to take our time here. We've got plenty of time. You have plenty of fuel. We've got plenty of daylight."

"So just try to relax, and you always heard me say, 'Go back to basics,' so we're going to work the basics here as much as possible, OK?” John asked.

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“All right,” Taraska could be heard responding to her instructor.

To assist Taraska’s dangerous landing, the small airport was shut down so there were no any additional distractions, WCVB reported.

With a clear tarmac and assistance from her instructor, Taraska managed to land the plane safely.

PHOTO: Maggie Taraska, 17, talks to reporters at a press conference in Beverly, Mass. on Sep. 10, 2018 about her emergency landing the previous day at Beverly Regional Airport. (Boston Globe via Getty Images) More

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