US pilot lands aircraft on highway after engine fails, caught on cam
Premium- A pilot landed his aircraft on a highway after the engine started to fail.
- The whole incident was caught on the pilot's GoPro camera
A pilot made an emergency landing on a North Carolina highway in the United States, gliding through the traffic, after the engine started to fail. The whole incident, which happened on July 3, was caught on the pilot's GoPro camera.
Pilot Vincent Fraser left Fontana Lake in Swain County and was flying a single-engine plane with his father-in-law. It was then the engine started to fail, leaving him no option but to land the aircraft on a highway.
The video showed the aircraft dodging the power lines and traffic and making a landing on the highway, then coming to a complete stop.
Speaking with a local media, Vincent Fraser said, "I started going through my checklist, and I was able to get the aircraft to restart and kind of fly a little bit, but she would only fly for 3 to 5 seconds."
"By the grace of God, I looked to my left, and you couldn't see it before because, you know, it's just all valleys and mountains, but there's a road - that road that I landed on just right there, perfectly lined up," he said.
Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran praised the pilot's "outstanding" landing in a Facebook post. He also shared footage of the landing.
"This is the view from the pilots go pro camera from the cockpit of the plane on the emergency landing on Hwy. 74 on Sunday July 3, 2022. What an OUTSTANDING job and no injuries. AMAZING. If you look closely at 0:20 you will see the power lines the pilot was able to avoid," Sheriff Curtis Cochran said.
He added, "There were so many things that could have been catastrophic but they didn't happen."