Berg flies again, after emergency landing

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Tom Berg, president of Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories, Inc., can fly his single-engine airplane again after an in-flight engine explosion forced an emergency landing at an airport in eastern South Dakota two months ago.

Berg and a companion were returning in his six-place Piper Lance from a visit to a MVTL facility in Bismarck, N.D., May 28, when "a connecting rod bolt either broke or backed out," blowing a hole in the top of the engine, Berg said.

The plane was about 12 miles west of Milbank, S.D., when the noise in the engine began.

"The engine slowed, but it still had some power until we were about 3 or 4 miles from the Milbank airport," Berg recalled. "Then, when I tried to apply throttle, it blew the hole -- twice the size of a hand -- and fire shot out the top. The engine totally quit, and we were a glider."

However, Berg felt he had enough altitude to put the plane down on the runway at Milbank.

"Oil was flying out of the engine and onto the windshield, but it was less on the passenger's side so he helped guide me," Berg said. "Because of the altitude, I knew we only had one shot at it."

Berg said he had three things going for him in getting the plane down safely.

"We had been flying at 9,000 feet, the higher the better as it buys you time. It was clear so I could see the ground, and it was near dusk so we still had light," he said.

Having an airport available also helped as Berg didn't have to worry about setting the plane down on a road or in a field in the gathering darkness.

In his 34 years of flying, this was the first time he has had to make an emergency landing.

"You actually practice this. Engines do quit occasionally, when water gets in the gas or something, but this kind of thing, where the engine explodes, that shouldn't have happened at all. It certainly was a surprise to me," Berg said.

While the plane was built in 1979, the engine was only 10 years old, Berg said. The damaged engine has been sent back to the factory for inspection to determine what went wrong.

In the meantime, New Ulm Flight Service replaced the engine and retrieved the plane from the Milbank Airport so that Berg now can be back in the air again.