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A SMALL PLANE travelling to Connecticut after taking a tour of the Statue of Liberty made an emergency landing last night on a New York City interstate highway, startling drivers but touching down safely with no serious injuries to anyone aboard or on the ground, officials said.
The aircraft, a Piper PA-28, set down at around 3:20 pm on the northbound side of the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, in an area where the highway passes through Van Cortlandt Park.
The Federal Aviation Administration said three people were on board. Police and fire officials said neither the male pilot nor two female passengers appeared to have been badly hurt. All were taken to a Bronx hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio told reporters the plane had departed from Danbury Municipal Airport and was making the return trip when it experienced engine problems.
“We have…extraordinary situation and actually a bit of a miracle, thank God, that happened today in our city,” he said, calling the successful highway landing, without any serious injuries or deaths, “amazing.”
“I thought I’d seen everything in my life,” he said.
The FAA said damage to the aircraft was minor.
(Associated Press/YouTube)
A maintenance crew of city Department of Transportation workers fixing potholes on the northbound side of the highway noticed the plane in distress heading toward them and stopped traffic, clearing space for the plane to land, a DOT spokesman said.
The DOT crew then helped the plane’s occupants out of the aircraft and inside a heated truck until emergency workers arrived, the spokesman said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of engine problems the plane experienced. A spokeswoman for the FAA said it was investigating but said the National Transportation Safety Board would take over the investigation if it was determined the aircraft sustained a significant amount of damage.
There were no fires or gas leaks and emergency workers removed the plane’s fuel to secure the scene, de Blasio said.
The highway was closed and emergency personnel were on the scene until about 6 p.m., when the plane was taken away on a flatbed truck to a local aviation facility, the FAA said.
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Pshh I’ve been doing that since GTA San Andreas
FairPlay to the pilot for keeping calm and getting the plane down
Fully agree
Ireland’s worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small two-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery.
Irish search and rescue workers have recovered 1826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging goes on into the night.
Funniest thing ive read all year ha ha good on ya
All year is right Kevin on the 5th January, probably won’t read anything funnier till tomorrow.
All the thumbs down yez all depressed after the Xmas or what
No
We just wanted you ask a question and it worked
Sap
Probily so james’ true that but fell about laughting when read it
Anonymous i thaught it was funny out fair play to ya for cheering me up should have ya own collum
Couldn’t have my own with the depressed folks on here
It would be funny if it wasn’t about 20 yr old.
Says the troll wearing a mask
Ha ha
Im married you fcukong idiot..what do you do? Probably a 16 yr old wanna be hardman. You’d be lost and friendless if your mammy took away your internet. Youd have to throw away all them tissues and copies of zoo magazine
Calm down girls…
I thought gay marriage wasn’t legal yet
You really are a repulsive moron. Probably a loner too
It was just a trial run for a new route for Ryanair’s entry to the US market. Much cheaper to land on a motorway than having to pay airport landing charges etc. Brilliant move Michael. And look at all that free publicity .
Never a dull moment in NY, from landing on the Hudson to a highway
That’s offensive to Osama bin Laden who risked his life to kill 3000 people
Osama got paid good money from the cia so it’s all good in bin laden land
the journal bringing you yesterday’s news today……
That’s my catchphrase !!
Yeah but nobody likes you! ;)
Was it yer wan with the lottery money heading to the butchers?
Direct from Dublin to Woodlawn, just fell short and all 3 were refused, good try tho..
Lucky the plane didn’t hit a building.
Hail Hitler
Funny that as an Indian chap crash landed on a highway in India last week … Is there a trend emerging ??
Cleared to land.
hate on me if you will, but surely landing on highways should be totally discouraged by the FAA?? If it wasn’t for the maintenance crew, the pilot could have injured a lot of people on the highway due to self preservation?
i understand that he may not have landed the plane if it wasn’t clear but i can only assume he was lining up to land regardless. Also, highways in America being designed as emergency runways in case of attack is an urban legend!
Oh yeh. Hmm im in serious danger but I can’t land on the road. Lets just drift till I crash land and die
Stupid comment, Johnny. Would you prefer he landed it in to the side of a skyscraper?
How about a field?? If they could land a jet down west 20 years ago in a field they can land a light aircraft in a field. But sure lets makr it the norm to land planes in danger on roads, dont worry about the road users.
Johnny, have you ever flown an aircraft? As someone who has flown both light single aircraft and multi engine commercial aircraft I can tell you the decision that this pilot opted for is not as simple and careless as you imply. The unfortunate situation on light, single engine piston aircraft is they only fly at a few thousand feet so in the event of losing an engine the only way is down, gliding, and the pilot only has a few minutes on his hands because of the low altitude. He/she has a lot going on in those few minutes; maintaining a safe airspeed so the plane doesn’t ‘stall’ and literally fall uncontrollable out of the sky, picking a suitable landing site, running checklists to try get that one and only engine running again and communicating to ATC. I don’t know how light/dark it was when this particular accident happened but at night time it’s nion impossible to find, nevermind land in a field because you can’t see it so the only option available for this pilot may have been to choose a lit motorway. Had there been traffic, landing in the same direction of moving traffic would hopefully give motorists time to come to a halt as the aircraft would be moving at a speed of roughly 60kts (around 110km/h).
have your say