JET MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING

A Wal-Mart Stores Learjet 35 en route from Bentonville, Ark., to New York, made an emergency landing at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Thursday morning, when smoke was reported in the plane's cabin.

The plane landed safely and without incident at about 9:30.

The pilot, Greg Stanton, told Cape Girardeau firefighters he requested landing clearance when passengers noticed smoke in the left rear side of the cabin.

Cape Girardeau firefighters and emergency personnel responded to the incident.

The plane had two crew members and five Wal-Mart officials aboard.

The pilot said passengers first smelled smoke, and later observed the smoke. The smoke had cleared and was not visible once the plane had landed and shut down.

"We checked the inside of the plane and couldn't find anything" said Cape Girardeau firefighter Rick Crites

One passengers, who requested anonymity, said the smoke smelled like cigarette smoke at first but later smelled like burning oil.

There was no panic, the passenger added. "We had complete confidence in our crew."

The landing was described as a "routine emergency landing."

After contact with the Wal-Mart company, two planes were dispatched from Bentonville to the local airport, one to pick up the passengers. The second plane carried a crew of mechanics to check out and make minor repairs to the plane before it departed for Bentonville, about 3:45 p.m.

The emergency landing was the second during the past six months at the airport, said airport manager Bruce Loy.

A commercial airlines flight from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport had some scary moments on June 26, when the plane's landing gear deploy light did not activate.

That flight had 11 people aboard including nine passengers. The pilots determined the landing gear was down and locked and performed an emergency landing. No one was injured, but the plane's return flight to St. Louis was delayed while maintenance crews corrected the problem.