Emergency Landing
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (118435)
Gainesville, Florida
February 28, 2016 3:46pm CST
On the way home from our nature hike today, as we were driving down the road my son and I heard a strange noise overhead, and then were completely startled to see a small airplane come down in front of us and make a hard landing right on the road! Fortunately, traffic was light, and the plane was able to make a safe emergency landing without harming anyone else on the ground. Unfortunately, the plane hit a tree in the median of the road pretty hard, causing some slight injuries to the two passengers inside.
Luckily for everyone involved, the plane came down just slightly down the way from a fire station, so it only took about one minute for the first firetruck to arrive. Also, coincidentally, at the same time the plane came down an ambulance happened to be driving down the same stretch of road.
The pilot and passenger in the plane were taken to the hospital for observation, although no serious injuries were reported. They were very fortunate that the emergency landing wasn't more serious!
My son was pretty excited during the whole ordeal, as he's never seen anything like this before!
21 people like this
20 responses
@VivaLaDani13 (60337)
• Perth, Australia
17 Apr 16
I'm so glad no one was seriously injured. What a story to share with people though!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Apr 16
Fortunately, in this incident, everyone survived. If there would have been a fatality, I would have felt guilty sharing the story with everyone.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Mar 18
@VivaLaDani13 Don't put me too high up on a pedestal Dani, as I'm still human like everyone else! Even if I do wear a cape! LOL
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60337)
• Perth, Australia
11 Mar 18
@moffittjc And you give me yet another reason to add to the "Why Jeff is Awesome.." list.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
This is the second emergency landing I've seen in the last five years. The other was a similar type of plane crash-landing in a parking lot where I had just parked my vehicle minutes before. Unfortunately, that pilot suffered serious injuries, although he lived. A lot of vehicles were also damaged in the parking lot.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Mar 16
@Scindhia In this case, there was a fire inside the plane, and the cockpit was filling up with smoke. The pilot had to put the plane down as quickly as he could while he could still see to land. Otherwise, he would have been in a fatal crash if he tried to make it back to the airport.
1 person likes this
@Scindhia (1906)
• India
1 Mar 16
@moffittjc Wonder what prompts such landings? Imagine standing in a parking lot and suddenly a plane coming towards us in high speed... Scary!
@ElusiveButterfly (45940)
• United States
1 Mar 16
Holy moly. I would have peed myself to see such a sight. Thankfully there were no fatalities.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Mar 16
And thankfully you didn't witness it! I would hate to see you pee yourself! lol
1 person likes this
@lilnana1111 (2305)
• United States
1 Mar 16
Oh my that would be scary, glad everyone is ok.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Mar 16
The pilot and passenger were released from the hospital several hours after they were admitted. Neither suffered serious injury, but they wanted to examine them to make sure they had no internal bleeding from the impact.
1 person likes this
@Rohvannyn (3098)
• United States
1 Jul 16
Poor little Cessna. Looks like a 172 or maybe a 152. I can tell the pilot was trying to fly as slowly as possible so as to avoid injuries - I'm really glad everyone was okay.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Jul 16
I believe it was a 172. The pilot should be commended for excellent control and navigating skills, because the area where he brought the plane down contained a lot of trees and a lesser skilled pilot could have caused a lot of damage.
@JESSY3236 (18923)
• United States
29 Feb 16
That would be scary and exciting. I'm glad no one wasn't seriously injured.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
The pilot and his passenger did sustain injuries and had to be transported to the hospital, but it wasn't anything life threatening.
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Feb 16
I'm just glad it didn't turn out worse, or else my son would have had nightmares for years!
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
29 Feb 16
That is some picture. I'm sure there would be local and other news sources liking your picture. The event would also get me excited. How was the wind at the time of the crash? I wonder if the pilot seeing a different traffic situation would have made another choice. Good news here. Everyone was safe.
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
29 Feb 16
@moffittjc That must have been tense. I see those small planes floating around as it doesn't take much power to control descent. Still with smoke I would think it would be almost a split second decision. So lucky there wasn't traffic or someone bicycling or something. It doesn't happen everyday.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Mar 16
@Bluedoll I was really surprised to hear the pilot comment that he had to bring the plane down quickly because of fire and smoke, but I don't know how he was able to see the road clearly enough to land with all the smoke inside the cockpit.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
There was no wind at the time. There was a fire inside the airplane, so the pilot had to get the plane down as quickly as possible. He was only about a half-mile away from the airport, but just couldn't make it due to the excessive smoke in the cabin of the plane. All things considered, the pilot did an excellent job of safety getting the plane down on the ground without injuring or killing anyone.
1 person likes this
@yukimori (10144)
• United States
28 Feb 16
Talk about a once in a lifetime experience! The closest we've come is having one of the hot air balloons at the last annual balloon fest cross the highway in front of us at about 15-20 feet. Glad to hear that there weren't any serious injuries in your case, though. That could have been a lot worse than it was!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
This is actually the second one I've experienced! I was tailgating at a football game a couple of years ago when one of those planes that tows those banners in the sky crashed right in the parking lot where we were tailgating. That pilot was lucky to survive, although he had major back and leg injuries! Somewhere I have a picture of it, but can't seem to find it on this computer. Despite the seriousness of the crash, the photo is quite funny, because the plane crashed into the back of a pickup truck! It looked like the truck was hauling the plane!
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
28 Feb 16
Whoa! That would be a startling surprise while driving. Glad no one was seriously injured.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
It happened so fast I didn't have time to even be startled! lol
@JudyEv (325720)
• Rockingham, Australia
28 Feb 16
It's lucky you were where you were and not under the plane! How fortunate to have all the emergency services so close. I'm glad no-one was killed. Seems like the pilot chose his landing spot well.
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
Yes, he made sure to set the plane down where there were no people or cars. I have a big red Ford F-150, so he said it served as a guide to get him down safely. It was easy to see from the air.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
@JudyEv I'm good with that, as long as my truck doesn't become the target!
I'm searching through all my old photos, because somewhere I have another picture of a small plane crash that happened a few years ago when I was getting ready to go to a sporting event here in town. In that instance, the plane crash-landed in a parking lot and came to rest in the back of a truck! lol
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325720)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Feb 16
@moffittjc A new selling point for the Ford F-150! Ideal for guiding down light planes in trouble!
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
29 Feb 16
@moffittjc He would have been much luckier if someone had not dumped a tree in the road.
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
Anytime an airplane falls out of the sky, I would consider it good luck to be able to safely land, even if it did hit a tree! I'm sure this pilot is considering himself very lucky in this instance.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
I wouldn't want to be on any airplane that had to crash-land!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Feb 16
The pilot was almost able to stop the plane before it hit the tree, but just didn't quite get it before he smashed into the tree.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
28 Feb 16
Someone was looking after all of you today. Thankfully it did not end any worse than it did and I am pleased you are all safe.
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Feb 16
Glad everybody was safe in the end!
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
29 Feb 16
Holy crap @moffittjc that would be scary. We had a similar plane go down yesterday just south of Dallas. Sad thing is both adults and 2 children were killed in the crash.
@moffittjc (118435)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Mar 16
@nanette64 I have flown quite a bit in my life, although I don't as much these days as I used to. I never really worried about flying, because they say it is still one of the safest modes of transportation.
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
1 Mar 16
@moffittjc That's why I'm not an 'airplane' person. I've been in one 3 times and that's plenty.
@Morleyhunt (21737)
• Canada
10 Mar 16
Of course your son was excited. This was something memorable.
