What was going to be a simple getaway to celebrate the New Year turned into an emergency landing on the mythical Route 66. On Monday, January 2, Brock Peters, a Californian student, had to make an emergency landing after the His passenger plane’s engine suddenly stopped, reports The Guardian.
At just 18 years old, the young pilot achieved the feat of landing the aircraft in the middle of a highway, with no injuries among his passengers, made up of two of his cousins visiting for Christmas and his 77-year-old grandmother. “We still can’t believe what happened, it’s still shocking,” said the youngster, who earned his private pilot’s license just four months ago after starting to fly at 16.
“I love the feeling, the speed. I like to see things from the air, it’s a different perspective,” she explains.
sudden engine stop
The day’s program was nothing special. Leaving from Apple Valley Airfield aboard a chartered single-engine piston plane, the three passengers and the pilot were bound for Riverside in suburban Los Angeles, where they were supposed to stop over.
“Usually we go down for lunch, eat quickly and enjoy flying,” says Brock Peters.
But this Monday, when the plane reached its cruising speed, a “boom” was heard. The engine stops responding and attempts to restart it are unsuccessful. While the aircraft is at just under 1,700 meters altitude, the aircraft begins to descend towards the ground. Brock Peters must make a decision quickly. “He was completely focused on the plane. (…) It was just me, the device and getting everyone back safely,” he explains.
The young pilot decides to look for a base where he can make an emergency landing. An exercise that he already faced during his exam to become a pilot, but one that often ends in drama.
“I just remembered my training”
The fields are visible below, but from his cabin, Brock sees trees and rocks. “If we had landed there, we would have been seriously injured and the plane completely destroyed,” he said. In the back, he hears his grandmother crying, but decides to focus on her mission.
“I just remembered my practice, I really focused on it,” he told CBS Los Angeles.
Finally, he falls back on the mythical Route 66. He spots a possible alternative landing strip between two hills. At this moment two cars are circulating, but miraculously they are not in the path of the plane, as are the electrical cables that line the road.
“Honestly, I didn’t see them. I think it was a divine intervention, it was God who moved the cables”, believes the young man.
“God really helped me”
He manages to land the plane, and the landing, “as smooth as any”, goes off without a hitch. On board, the shuddering passengers are intact. The images taken by CBS Los Angeles after the emergency landing show the plane somewhat displaced from the road, in the middle of some hills: the rescue services were called just after landing to remove the machine so as not to obstruct traffic.
“God helped me a lot in this. It was a story of just five minutes,” he told the American channel.
From now on, his relatives call him the “hero of the family”. And the incident in no way tarnished his desire to become an airline pilot. “It was a good experience to learn”, he slips it.
Source: BFM TV
