A History Of Crashes Around The Lubbock International Airport

Believe it or not, I have very good news for you.

The Lubbock International Airport actually has a pretty stellar safety record if you ask me (and Wikipedia). In fact, it looks like the only incident involving a commercial passenger aircraft happened 62 years ago.  62 years is also a stellar amount of time to get even better at what you do (it doesn't make us "overdue").

In July of 1962 a Continental Airlines turboprop apparently went a little front-heavy and the propellers struck the runway after takeoff. The plane was able to recover from this bad start and land wheels up in a wheat field (I didn't know anybody even grew wheat here).  No injuries were reported in this incident.

Jump ahead all the way to January of 2009 when a plane flying for FedEx hit some light ice while landing. That plane went off the runaway and a small fire broke out. Two crew members were treaded for minor injuries at a Lubbock Hospital.

It was six more years in 2015 before a small private plane clipped a local t.v. transmitter antenna about eight miles away from the airport. That accident resulted in a fatality.

The last reported incident was another small private plane that crashed 5 miles short of the runway in 2020. The pilot was killed and bad weather was blamed.

I would say that one has to feel pretty good about the Lubbock International airport. That's a grand total of four incidents and only two actually happened on the runway. These are only incidents documented on Wikipedia, but it seems to be fairly accurate.

Flying can be a nerve-wracking process for may people, especially first-time air travelers. You can at least take comfort in the fact the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport has a stellar safety record.