May 30--A UND student pilot making a solo flight lost directional control of his plane and went off the Grand Forks International Airport runway soon after touching down about 10 a.m. Thursday.

The pilot was not injured, but the plane suffered some visible damage, said Dana Siewert, director of aviation safety at the UND aerospace school.

The school hadn't yet assessed the total damage as of Thursday afternoon, Siewert said.

The four-seat Piper Warrior plane left the runway while it was still in the landing phase, Siewert said, meaning it likely was going very fast. The plane veered off the runway at about a 40-degree angle and went about 60 yards, he said, before coming to a stop surrounded by tall grass.

About 11 a.m., ambulances, fire trucks and state patrol cars were lining the runway adjacent to where the plane came to a stop, and workers were walking back and forth to the plane through the tall grass.

Siewert called such accidents very rare, but said he didn't have numbers in front of him to gauge their frequency at the flight school. He said the school will investigate the accident, along with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

At this point, Siewert said, it's not clear whether the accident was caused by a pilot error or a mechanical problem.

Four UND students have been killed in airplane crashes in recent years -- two in October near Little Falls, Minn. when a flock of geese hit their plane and two others near Crookston in late 2006, who were brought down by poor weather and pilot inexperience, according to a NTSB report.

The second set of students were practicing takeoffs and landings on their own time, not flying in a UND plane or on a UNDsanctioned training exercise.

More recently, a UND helicopter made what airport officials called a precautionary landing in March after a cockpit indicator lit up.

Reach Marks at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to [email protected].