MU basketball coach on plane during emergency landing

“All of a sudden I heard a little rumble and I looked over and the right propeller stopped propelling.”

Missouri head basketball coach Kim Anderson is safe tonight after a plane he was on last night had an engine failure.

Anderson was flying to Illinois when he heard one propeller stop.

ABC 17 News was there with Anderson when he told the unnerving story.

Anderson said he was not sure how much danger he was in.

Recalling the experience, Anderson became emotional talking about first responders waiting for the plane once they landed.

Anderson left the Columbia Regional Airport for a recruiting trip in Illinois. The pilots made an emergency landing in St. Clair, Missouri, about 100 miles from Columbia.

The St. Clair fire chief said the plane reported problems at about 5:00 last night.

Anderson told ABC 17 what the emergency landing was like.

“There were police cars, fire engines, ambulances that’s when I thought this was pretty serious. One of the pilots told me, “Coach, it’s a good thing we hit that runway perfect. I said, ‘why?’ He said, ‘because there wasn’t enough to pull it back up.”

Anderson and the pilots were driven back to Columbia following the landing.