A North Carolina couple survived a terrifying plane crash after the pilot made a last-second maneuver that allowed the aircraft’s underside to absorb much of the impact.
Dustin Davis, 44, and his wife, Autumn, 41, escaped the near-fatal accident on the evening of October 7.
The couple had just left church when they boarded their single-engine Piper PA-32 with their dogs, Sophie and Royce. They were headed from their primary home in Hickory to their beach house in Ocean Isle Beach, a flight that typically took about 40 minutes.
They had made the trip to their $780,000 coastal property many times, and Davis said the flight initially appeared routine. “It was like any other night,” he told WRAL.
That changed midway through the journey, when the plane’s engine began to sputter. Moments later, Davis said, it lost power entirely.
The aircraft was flying at 6,000 feet and descending at roughly 1,000 feet per minute. Davis, who was piloting, had about six minutes to determine where and how to land before the plane hit the ground.
He called air traffic control for guidance, but there were no nearby roads or airports that offered an obvious place to land.
Controllers told Davis the closest airport was eight miles away. However, the powerless aircraft could not reach it, and he knew he could not glide that distance.
North Carolina couple Dustin and Autumn Davis survived a plane crash on October 7. They are pictured with their dogs, Sophie and Royce, who also survived the accident
Davis said reflecting on the near-death experience taught him important lessons about what truly matters
The plane came to rest in a tree that “held us like a glove,” Davis said. He and his wife were able to jump from the aircraft and sustained only minor injuries
Davis said Autumn asked what she could do to help. His response was immediate: “Baby, just pray. Just pray.”
It was too dark for Davis to see the terrain below, but as the plane dropped rapidly, he chose to turn left.
“We didn’t know if it was going to be a field. We didn’t know if it’d be trees. We didn’t know if it’d be a couple houses with no lights on, a barn,” he told WRAL.
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As the aircraft neared the ground, the couple began to see trees. Davis slowed the plane as much as possible without stalling, bringing its speed down to about 84 mph, he said.
Just above the treetops, he pulled up so the plane’s belly would take most of the force. “The rest of it was in God’s hands,” Davis said.
“When we went into the trees, we were both thinking this is it,” he said.
But one tree proved to be the difference between life and death. It was strong enough to prevent the plane from hitting the ground, yet flexible enough to bend during the crash. “It just kind of held us like a glove,” Davis said.
At first, the couple could not tell how far above the ground they were because of the darkness. They eventually found their phones and used the flashlights to determine the distance.
The couple had been flying to their $780,000 beach house in Ocean Isle Beach when the crash occurred. They had made the journey many times before
The couple was flying in a single-engine Piper PA-32 (pictured). Davis said he has owned the plane for about six years, and it had passed its annual inspection
The plane landed about six feet off the ground. Davis only suffered a black eye, and his wife only suffered soreness in her neck and back
‘Seeing that we were only six feet off the ground, I could not tell you the joy and happiness,’ he told WRAL. ‘We got our dogs and jumped out of that plane.’
The couple miraculously suffered only minor injuries. Davis got a black eye from hitting his head on the dashboard, and Autumn felt soreness in her neck and back. Their dogs also came out unscathed.
Davis said that reflecting on the experience over the past two weeks has taught him valuable lessons about what is important.
‘What I was not thinking about when we were going down – I was not thinking about bitterness. I was not thinking about someone that’s hurt my feelings. I was not thinking about a busy schedule, or a bank account, or anything like that,’ he said.
‘So if it wasn’t that big a deal when we were looking death in the face, then it’s probably not that big a deal now, and we don’t need to get so worked up about certain things,’ Davis concluded.
Davis said he owned the plane for about six years, and it had passed its annual inspection. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating to determine what caused the engine failure and crash.
