A sheriff’s office in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina released video on Facebook Thursday of a pilot’s miraculous emergency landing on a four-lane highway and complimented the pilot’s skills.
“There were so many things that could have been catastrophic but they didn’t happen,” Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran said in his Facebook post. “What an OUTSTANDING job and no injuries.”
The pilot landed on U.S. 74 about 11:50 a.m. on what the video showed to be a partly cloudy Sunday, July 3.
“The pilot said the engine stalled and he had to set the plane down,” the sheriff’s office said in a July 3 Facebook post.
“AMAZING If you look closely at 0:20 you will see the power lines the pilot was able to avoid,” according to the sheriff’s Facebook post.
The sheriff posted 1 minute and 15 seconds of footage from the pilot’s Go Pro camera in the cockpit of the plane.
The plane flies above several cars as the pilot nears the road, the video shows.
After touching down in the middle turn lane as the road curved, the pilot veered into the two opposite lanes of traffic, the video shows. Two drivers pulled to the side of the road to avoid the plane, according to the video.
The pilot returned to the turn lane and, when no cars were around, to the side of the road where it parked.
Social media reacted with wonder.
“They drove the plane on the highway better than most drive cars on the highway!” a woman posted on Facebook.
“And no horn, LOL,” a woman replied.
“I hear Delta needs pilots — sign this one up now!” another woman posted.
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