Pilot lands small plane on highway after engine quits
Posted Mar 8, 2019 09:17:41 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ALPINE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A pilot flew under traffic lights to safely land a small plane on a Michigan highway after experiencing engine trouble.
Flight instructor Steven Chanter was in the air with a student pilot Thursday when the plane’s engine began to sputter and the oil pressure dropped.
Chanter says he took over flying and was certain the plane wouldn’t make it to a small airport in nearby Sparta, so he landed on state highway 37.
Chanter told WOOD-TV he flew the plane under traffic lights at an intersection during the landing in Alpine Township, about 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Grand Rapids.
No one was injured and the plane wasn’t damaged. Chanter says: “Truly, God’s watching over us.”
The plane was hauled away on a flatbed truck. MLive.com reports that Chanter has been a pilot since 2000 and a flight instructor since 2003.
The Associated Press
