A couple of tough Nuts!

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March 05. 2007 1:00PM

Arkansas coach and mother unhurt in aircraft mishap

Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt and his mother, Emogene Nutt of Little Rock, were both unhurt Sunday when the landing gear collapsed on a small plane as it made an emergency landing, a university spokesman said.

The Nutts were traveling to Lafayette, La., for the Sun Belt Conference basketball tournament, where the Arkansas State basketball team of Dickey Nutt - Houston's brother - was to play Sunday evening against New Orleans, UA athletic department spokesman Kevin Trainor said.

Trainor said Houston Nutt boarded the private aircraft - a twin-engine King Air 200 propeller-driven plane - at Fayetteville and traveled on it to Little Rock to pick up his mother for the trip to Lafayette. But after the plane took off again from Little Rock, Trainor said, pilot Mark Myers thought he detected a problem with the landing gear.

Rather than attempt a landing at Little Rock, Trainor said, Myers decided to return to Fayetteville, where the plane is based, to have maintenance performed on the plane. Before landing at Fayetteville's Drake Field, Trainor said, the Fayetteville Fire Department was notified of the impending emergency landing.

Just before landing, the pilot made a pass near the airport's tower to confirm that the landing gear were in place. They were, Trainor said, but when the plane put down on the runway, two of the assemblies collapsed, and the plane dropped to its belly and came to a stop in a grassy area alongside the runway.

The pilot was also uninjured, Trainor said.

The football coach and his mother boarded another plane at Fayetteville and flew to Lafayette in time for ASU's game, Trainor said.

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