After crashing down on a California road on Tuesday afternoon, the pilot and passenger of a tiny single-engine aircraft walked away unscathed.
Andrew Cho, the Piper Cherokee’s pilot, lost engine power and opted to use the 91 Freeway at Corona in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, as a runway.
Dashcam video showed the amazing moment the plane managed to land in between automobiles in the eastbound lanes at 12:30pm.
As it careered over the motorway lanes, the jet exploded into flames and came to rest on the shoulder.
Passing motorists caught the moment Cho and his business partner passenger fled the blazing crash alive as dense black smoke billowed into the air.
‘It felt like a sharp jolt.’ ‘It’s difficult to put into words,’ Cho told KTLA. ‘We were four to five feet in the air when the jet fully stopped and crashed to the earth.’
Cho said that he was able to safely land the plane due to his training.
‘Your training takes effect, and you do the proper thing.’ ‘You get the greatest results if you don’t panic,’ he stated. Captain Levi Miller of the California Highway Patrol stated, ‘The pilot claims to have suffered suspected engine failure on their final approach to Corona Municipal Airport.’
‘We’re really lucky today because there was little traffic, and the pilot looks to have made some fantastic landing navigation, avoiding what might have been a very catastrophic disaster,’ Miller said.
The driver and three passengers in a pickup vehicle that was also hit by one of the plane’s wings were unharmed.
Parts of the roadway were stopped for several hours as the debris was removed and Federal Aviation Administration officials worked to determine what caused the collision.