Riyadh: The American pilot and co-pilot of a Cessna airplane were slightly hurt Wednesday evening when they crashed short of a runway in the Saudi capital, a civil aviation spokesman said.
The pilot radioed that he needed to make an emergency landing because he had run out of fuel, Khaled al-Khaibari, spokesman for the General Authority of Civil Aviation, told AFP.
They had flown from Egypt to King Khalid International Airport, and their small plane came down between one and 1.5 miles (around two kilometres) from the runway, Khaibari said.
"The pilot and the co-pilot were injured. I think lightly injured," he said, adding that Saudi authorities are investigating.
In a photograph published on the website of Alriyadh newspaper, the aircraft appeared largely undamaged except for the right wing, which came to rest against a mound of dirt in a scrubby area.
