Dash-cam footage shows the light aircraft touching down on Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers after mechanical trouble. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office says no one was hurt.
A small plane made an emergency landing on a busy road in North Fort Myers, Florida, on Saturday, narrowly missing several vehicles before rear-ending a pickup truck. Two pilots were on board the Cessna 172D Skyhawk, which developed mechanical problems in flight. Police said no one in the aircraft or the truck was injured. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken over the investigation into the failure.
The landing
Dash-cam footage from a parked car shows the aircraft coming down on a heavily used stretch of Bayshore Road. The plane touched down, and drivers can be seen swerving out of its path as it approached. During its roll, it hit the back of a pickup truck, according to police.
Officers from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office went to the scene to secure the area. Investigators have not named the two pilots or the driver of the pickup.
Sheriff’s response
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said: “Thankfully, this incident had a positive outcome, and no one was injured. Given the recent tragic news involving aviation accidents, we are especially grateful that everyone is safe.”
Recent crash in Palm Beach County
The sheriff’s reference is to the Learjet 60 crash in Palm Beach County on Sunday 1 November, which killed all nine people on board. The jet was flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it ran into dangerous weather over Florida. It fell almost 27,000 feet in under a minute before crashing onto a residential street and erupting into a fireball. Parts of the aircraft were found nearly four miles from the crash site.
Those on board included the pilot, Jeffrey Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20. Tech tycoon Adam Robinson, 45, his wife Helen Sharp, 40, and their children, Emma, four, and Charlie, two, also died, along with their friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr and their nanny.
