LITTLE ROCK — Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says he wasn’t especially concerned when an indicator light on a small airplane he was piloting malfunctioned and failed to tell him his landing gear was working.
The incident occurred late Friday as McDaniel was approaching the Jonesboro Municipal Airport after attending meetings and a Chamber of Commerce event in Northwest Arkansas. He was piloting his personal Beechcraft Baron 55 twin-engine plane, which he flies at his own expense.
“I assumed that (a malfunctioning light) was all it was but, playing by the book, you need to report it,” McDaniel said Monday. “I was flying into an airport that was closed, and so the fire department, which has a fire station on the field, had firefighters respond.”
McDaniel landed the plane without incident.
“I was truly not concerned that the gear was malfunctioning. I truly believed the whole time it was just a simple indicator problem,” he said.