Small plane lands on Missouri highway
December 12, 2011, 06:12 pm
A pilot from Indiana recently took off on a trip to Springfield, Missouri, for a weekend excursion. But before he could land at the Missouri airport, the plane ran out of gas and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on a Greene County highway.
South Bend, Indiana, news provider, WBND, reported the pilot of the Cessna maneuvered around traffic and power lines to safely land the plane on the highway. The pilot had rented the plane from Mishawaka Air Activities in Elkhart, Indiana, and was taking his wife on a getaway to Branson, Missouri. The pilot normally flies a 737 Poppa Victor, but the aircraft did not have enough room for the other couple he was picking up along the way, so he rented a larger plane.
After flying for around six hours, the pilot alerted an air traffic controller that he had run out of gas and had to land on the highway.
Witnesses said the pilot was circling above the Springfield airport runway, waiting for clearance to land.
"If he was circling and held in a pattern, it could have used what fuel he thought he had left," Tom May, the manager of the Mishawaka Pilots Club airport, told the source.
According to St. Louis Today, two women and two men were on the plane, but no one was hurt during the landing.
For unexpected events such as running out of gas, pilots should invest in pilot insurance to make sure any associated damages or medical costs are covered.
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