December 8, 1978 Emergency Landing - A twin-engine air cargo plane startled commuters and grazed a trash compacter truck this morning when it made a successful emergency landing in the westbound lane of Hwy. 35, about 3 miles west of Hastings. Neither the pilot, Glenn E. Carpenter, 28, Burnsville, nor the truckdriver, Robert C. Knoll, 40, rural Welch, Minn., was hurt, authorities said. Knoll saw the plane starting to land and pulled his truck to the shoulder before diving to safety from the passenger side of the cab, according to Minnesota Patrol Sgt. A1 Golias. Knoll’s leap from the truck apparently saved him from serious injury because a gasoline tank on the plane’s wing smashed into the driver's side of the truck's windshield. Knoll is employed by Hastings Disposal Inc., Hastings. Traffic was being rerouted around the aircraft, which remained parked on the two-lane highway until Federal Aviation Administration officials could determine why Carpenter made the landing. Carpenter was en route to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and had radioed the control tower for landing instructions before making the landing about 8:30 a.m., a tower spokesman said. Carpenter was returning from one of the all-night flights he makes six days a week, according to his father, Dean Carpenter. The pilot's father said the flights, for Rapidair Inc., of Denver, originate in Minneapolis and include stops in LaCrosse, Milwaukee and Chicago. Charles Bjorgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
