Mishap briefly closes Aspen-Pitkin County Airport runway

The Aspen-Pitkin County Airport runway shut down for about 30 minutes Thursday afternoon after a small plane had a minor accident while landing.

A propeller on the twin-engine aircraft struck the runway around 3:45 p.m., according to Dustin Havel, assistant aviation director-operations and facilities. The plane is locally based, and its sole occupant, the pilot, was unhurt, he said. The name of the pilot was not released.

The arrival of a United Express flight into Aspen was delayed while the plane was removed from the runway and the scene was cleaned up, according to Havel.

As a courtesy, he said, the airport notified the National Transportation Safety Board about the incident. Havel called the accident “pretty minor.”

Operations at the airport resumed as usual after the cleanup, he said.