UPDATED---No one injured during emergency landing of small airplane in SR 44, Lecanto parking lot
Photo courtesy of CCSO.
According to Flightaware, a credible flight monitoring service, the N29EB aircraft was seen flying from near the Crystal River area, shortly after 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 11, 2023, to Lake City, Florida, and departing from Lake City, Florida to Brunswick, Georgia, about 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2023. The 2009 Bravo aircraft is classified as a light sport/acrobatic and is co-owned by Henry G. Kahrs of Palm Harbor, Florida, according to registration information.
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Lecanto, Florida - Around midday on Friday, August 11, 2023, Citrus County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) deputies and first responders with Citrus County Fire Rescue were on the scene of an emergency landing of a personal aircraft in the parking lot of the Friends of Citrus and the Nature Coast Herry's Thrift & Gift Shoppe, located on E. Gulf to Lake Highway (State Road 44) in Lecanto.
No additional information was immediately available, but an article in the Citrus County Chronicle newspaper by Steve Steiner, who interviewed the plane's two passengers, stated that the pilot was Henry Kahrs, and his passenger was his wife, Carolyn Kahrs, who were enroute from Clearwater, Florida to Brunswick, Georgia when their Tecnam Bravo single-propeller plane began losing oil pressure, that the pilot of a Southwest Airline plane, flying above the couple's plane, spotted their plane and told them that the westbound lanes of the highway were clear, and to be careful of power lines. Steiner's article said that the couple was waiting for a mechanic to arrive, and after they met the with mechanic, they were planning to rent a car so they could drive back home to Clearwater.