HALL COUNTY, Ga. — An airplane that crashed on a main road in Gainesville has been moved out of the way, and police opened the road back up to traffic.
The plane crashed around 12:06 p.m. Monday. Three cars were hit.
Two people were hospitalized, but police said they were not seriously injured, Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco reports.
In air traffic control recordings, you can hear a pilot send out a warning.
“Mayday!” he repeated. “We’re not going to make it. Please, tell my wife, Molly, I love her and my parents. I love them so much.”
Then, he executed an emergency landing on Browns Bridge Road at Pearl Nix Parkway.
Surveillance videos show the plan skid on the roadway and hit cars.
Police said a total of three vehicles were damaged. People eating lunch were stunned.
“I just told my husband, I said, ‘That’s a plane! That’s a plane!’ It really scared us,” said Deanna Campbell.
“He came in pretty hard,” said Bryan Dodd.
Police said two pilots were on board.
“One of them was actually what I consider a student pilot. He was flying with the other pilot so he could get his hours in to do solo flights,” said Gainesville Police Capt. Kevin Holbrook.
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Holbrook said the plane took off from Gainesville Airport and was flying to Cherokee County. The National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft is a Beechcraft Bonanza (BE-35).
NTSB said shortly after departure, the pilot experienced problems with the engine and elected to turn back towards Gainesville to land there.
The airplane didn’t have enough power to make it to the airport, so the pilot made a forced landing on the road.
The passenger, who’s also a pilot, told Francisco they both scoped out other options but decided the roadway would do the least damage.
“That was a miracle,” said Campbell.
Police said this roadway is one of the busiest in the city. Hundreds of thousands of cars use it every day.
“Worked many a deadly plane crash. The fact that this one went down where it did and no one was seriously injured is remarkable,” said Capt. Holbrook.
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