Pilot makes 'outstanding' emergency landing on winding highway
Great weather helped the pilot guide a small aircraft down a treacherous road, dodging dangerous hazards along the way — and it was all caught on video from the cockpit.
A pilot in North Carolina made a daring emergency landing on a highway in Swain County with numerous cars on July 3, successfully weaving through traffic and slowing down the engine until the plane came to a complete stop.
Swain County is in western North Carolina, just south of Great Smoky Mountain National Park and about 75 miles to the southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee.
In a post on Facebook, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran had nothing but praise for the pilot, who successfully navigated the small aircraft around not just cars driving on a hilly North Carolina Highway 74, but also power lines, which, if hit, could have sparked a dangerous situation.
"There were so many things that could have been catastrophic but they didn't happen," Cochran wrote.
The pilot's GoPro camera shows how the plane carefully found its way to the ground, following the path of the highway as if it was a curvy airport runway. At times, the plane appears to fly just above several vehicles, but it does not hit any cars before slowly coming to a halt on the highway.
The emergency landing, which Cochran called "AMAZING," resulted in no injuries to anyone on the road or the pilot.
The tricky landing was almost certainly aided by what appeared to be stellar weather, with partly cloudy skies and little wind. Inclement weather such as rain or fog makes it difficult for planes to land, as a pilot's vision can be obscured, especially in an emergency landing when there aren't runway lights.
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