The Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, Va., (JYO) was closed for nearly two days last week after a Raytheon 390 Premier 1 business jet slid off the end of an ice-slicked runway on Tuesday night. No injuries were reported. While it normally takes just a few hours at the most to tow a disabled aircraft onto a flatbed truck and haul it out of the way, this rescue turned into a major production, hence the two-day headache for local pilots. The jet was wrapped in a special sling sent from the factory and lifted out of the ditch using construction cranes. A Hawker-Beechcraft spokesman told AVweb that the extraordinary extraction method was necessary to preserve the jets underbelly, since its landing gear was damaged as it slid into the ditch. Around the time of the incident, nearby Dulles International Airport reported winds out of the north at six knots with three miles visibility in freezing rain and mist, with broken clouds at 500 feet. The aircraft, N16DK, was arriving from the Beech Factory Airport in Wichita. The FAA’s preliminary report lists the damage to the aircraft as substantial.
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