A small airplane made an emergency landing on a busy Florida road crashing into two SUVs Wednesday afternoon.
Five were injured including the two people on board and three others in the SUVs. Luckily, everyone survived.
According to St. Petersburg firefighters, it’s unclear what caused the twin-engine Cessna 402B to come down but they credit the pilot for landing as successfully as he did, avoiding buildings or potential fatalities.
Fire Rescue Lt. Steve Lawrence told the Tampa Bay Times: ‘I believe the pilot realized they were having some kind of issue with the aircraft and decided to land on the roadway rather than into someone’s house.
‘So the pilot did a good job.’
Security camera shows the moment a small plane came crashing onto a busy Florida road
It’s unclear what caused the twin-engine Cessna 402B to make an emergency landing
Two SUVs were crashed into when the plane came down, luckily there were no fatalities
Security camera footage shows the moment the airplane came down. It can be seen in the top right corner of the screen as it veers to the ground.
On its way down, the plane hit trees and power lines and then rammed into Alphonsine Dean’s Mercury Mountaineer along with another vehicle.
Dean, 63, and her three-year-old grandson were driving on the road when she noticed an airplane flying too low to the ground.
‘This plane was falling from the sky,’ she said.
The impact from the plane caused the grandmother to hit her head on the door.
She escaped through the passenger door with her grandson and ran.
‘When I got a safe distance, I just fell down,’ Dean said. ‘And I thanked God.’
The two people on board along with Dean went to the hospital to be checked out after the crash.
Alphonsine Dean, 63, and her grandson were in her Mercury Mountaineer when the plane came crashing into them
The propellers of the plane were badly damaged and the landing gear was collapsed, though both of the wings were intact
The propellers of the plane were badly damaged and the landing gear was collapsed, though both of the wings were intact.
‘I can’t believe this happened,’ Dean said, ‘It was something you see in the movies. But it happened in real life.’
The plane was headed for Albert Whitted Airport and where it stopped roughly 1.5 miles short of Runway 7.
That same airplane completed a flight from Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport to Tallahassee International earlier that day, according to flightaware.com, a company that tracks aircraft movement.
Interestingly, no plan was listed for the flight that ended in the emergency landing.
‘It could have been a lot worse,’ Dean said. ‘That street is normally busy at that time of day with people picking up their kids from school.’
The pilot has not been identified and officials are still investigating what caused the emergency landing.
Firefighters are praising the pilot for his safe emergency landing as it could have been much worse