Pilot Makes Landing on North Carolina Mountain Highway

The view of an aircraft making an emergency landing on a busy North Carolina roadway would certainly have startled those in their cars, but not more so than the pilot of the high-wing Aero Commander 100 as he navigated the way to a successful landing after experiencing an inflight engine failure.

As it happens, the newly minted pilot, Vincent Fraser, was taking his father-in-law aloft on what was to be a quick flight when things went awry. As the engine failed and could not provide enough thrust to maintain altitude, Fraser was left with few options in the mountainous terrain, which luckily happened to have a four-lane (non-divided) highway snaking through it. It was on this highway that Fraser executed what would become an almost flawless emergency landing as he weaved and serpentined his way to a stop, all of which was recorded on his GoPro.

In a Facebook post, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran praised the landing, stating, "What an OUTSTANDING job and no injuries. AMAZING."

There is currently no information as to what caused the engine problems that precipitated the emergency landing. Regardless, great job!

See more videos from the Swain County Sheriff's office here.

Pro Pilot Tip: Three Keys To A Successful Landing

Sam WinerAuthor

Sam has his commercial fixed wing and rotorcraft rating, with just under 1,000 hours of total time. He owned a helicopter flight school in the Chicago area for over 11 years and worked as a pilot for radio traffic reporting services in the Chicago market. In addition, Sam has worked in the fast-paced radio news environment as a news anchor and traffic reporter in the Chicago, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City markets. His informative and humorous writing style, coupled with decades of experience in the aviation world, will provide easy reading with timely topics for the beginning aviator all the way up to the ATP professional.