Pilot makes belly landing at local airport

The pilot of a small plane with a malfunctioning landing gear made a hard landing Friday morning at Skylark Field in Killeen.

The pilot and a passenger walked away uninjured.

Matt Van Zalkenburgh, Killeen’s executive director of aviation, said the pilot of the single-engine Piper Arrow landed the plane with the gear up at around 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Once the plane was on the ground, an airport crew was able to lower the gear and tow the plane off the runway, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Texas Department of Public Safety are investigating, he said.

Operations returned to normal by late Friday morning after employees cleared debris from the runway.