Small plane makes daring emergency landing on Florida interstate after engine stops
By Aaron Cooper, CNN
(CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a small plane on a training flight that made an emergency landing on a Florida interstate Monday morning, narrowly missing highway signs and vehicles.
The single engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee was preparing to land at Pensacola International Airport just before 11 a.m., when the pilot radioed there was a problem with the plane.
“Our oil pressure is dropping down into the red and we do have fumes in the cockpit from the oil,” they said, according to air traffic control audio captured by LiveATC.net.
The plane had taken off from Pensacola about 30 minutes before, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
“(We’re) losing our engine. I don’t know if we are going to make the airport,” the pilot said.
Two people were onboard the plane at the time, according to the FAA.
“We are not making the airport, we are going down on I-10,” the pilot said. “We are lined up with I-10 trying to avoid the cars.”
Eric Jordan was driving a truck in the eastbound lanes of the highway when the plane landed right in front of him.
“It’s a miracle,” he told CNN affiliate WEAR. “If I wouldn’t have seen that shadow over my truck and slowed down, (the plane) would have been in the side of the cab.”
Video from his dash camera shows the aircraft gliding under a highway sign, missing it by mere feet, before touching down in the empty lanes.
The pilot and flight student onboard as well as the drivers on the highway were not injured, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said.
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CNN’s Sarah Dewberry and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.
