The pilot and passenger of a small single-engine plane managed to walk away without a scratch after crash-landing on a California freeway on Tuesday, August 9, 2022.
Andrew Cho who was piloting the Piper Cherokee lost engine power and so decided to use the 91 Freeway near Corona in Riverside County, east of LA, as a runway.
Dashcam footage captured the dramatic moment the aircraft managed to come down in between cars at about 12:30pm in the eastbound lanes.
The landing was almost flawless until one of the wings clipped a passing pickup truck, ripping one of its wings and spinning the plane around spreading flammable fuel across the surface of the road.
The plane burst into flames as it careered across the lanes of the freeway before coming to rest on the shoulder.
Seconds later, passing drivers captured the moment Cho and his business partner passenger escaped from the burning wreck with their lives as thick black smoke billowed into the air.
‘It felt like a hard bump. Hard to describe,’ Cho told KTLA. ‘We were four to five feet in the air when the plane stalled completely and fell to the ground.’
Cho said it was all down to training that he was able to make the crash landing successfully.
‘Your training kicks in and you do the right thing. As long as you don’t panic, you get the best outcome,’ he explained.
‘The pilot claims to have experienced possible engine failure on their final descent to Corona Municipal Airport,’ California Highway Patrol Captain Levi Miller said.
‘We’re very fortunate today that the traffic was light, and the pilot appears to have made some good landing navigation that avoided what could have been a very bad tragedy,’ Miller added.
The driver and three occupants of a pickup truck that was also struck by one of the plane’s wings were also unhurt.
Portions of the freeway were closed for several hours while the wreckage was cleared and investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration attempted to uncover the cause behind the crash.
