It seems that every couple of years there are news reports of planes landing unexpectedly at racetracks, training centres, breeding facilities or farms with racehorses. The most recent instance just occurred on Wednesday (Oct. 3).

According to an article by The Sentinel-Record, a small plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the infield of a Thoroughbred training track in Arkansas during the afternoon.

Onlookers close to the Double M Stables in western Garland County saw the plane coming, and at least some figured that it would be making an impromptu landing somewhere on the stables’ grounds.

The article has quoted John Ward, the owner of ‘The Crawfish Hole,’ a nearby establishment, as saying that he was out back of his restaurant, checking on the honeybees in his orchard, when the plane came by “just sputtering, and sputtering, and sputtering” – close enough, that, according to him, he could “almost… touch the wheels.”

The piece explains that Ward phoned a friend that works at Double M Stables and told him to expect a plane in the infield.

No injuries were reported from the incident.

A shot of the scene after a plane made an emergency landing at a Thoroughbred training facility (Image courtesy The Sentinel-Record / Richard Rasmussen)

As aforementioned, items about planes landing at horse racing-related facilities are somewhat common – albeit periodic – in the mainstream media.

In 2009, a small, single-engine plane that was attempting to make an emergency landing on Brittany Farms’ property crashed. Fortunately, the pilot and his passenger left the plane with no apparent injuries. For more information, click here.

In 2010, at Sam Beegle’s Ginger Tree Farm outside New Holland, Pennsylvania, a plane landed on the track unexpectedly. For more information, click here.

In 2012, the pilot of a crop duster made a miraculous escape after the plane he was navigating crash-landed on the property of a Standardbred farm. For more information, click here.

In 2014, a pilot was able to escape injury after he was forced to make an emergency landing onto the infield of a former racetrack. For more information, click here.

Earlier this year, in February of 2018, a group of Down Under horsepeople saw a small plane make an emergency landing at Stonewall Stud in South Auckland. For more information, click here.

(With files from The Sentinel-Record)