A 21-year-old flight instructor is being hailed for staying calm under pressure after she safely brought a small plane down on a busy Florida interstate, with assistance from a student pilot on their very first lesson.
Emily Shelton was instructing the unnamed trainee in a 1974 Piper Cherokee Warrior after departing Pensacola International Airport at 9:20 a.m. Monday, WEAR reports.
According to flight tracking information, the training flight climbed to about 3,000 feet above ground level while the student practiced turns before the aircraft began making its way back toward the airport.
The plane disappeared from flight tracking at 9:52 a.m. while flying over the Ensley area at roughly 1,600 feet.
Moments later, gripping dashcam video captured the aircraft skimming beneath an overhead highway sign structure about two miles away before touching down in the lanes of Interstate 10.
Despite the frightening emergency landing, both Shelton and her student were able to get out of the aircraft without injuries.
The Florida Highway Patrol later said the dramatic landing on I-10 was prompted by an engine failure aboard the small aircraft.
In tense radio communications, Shelton can be heard alerting an air traffic controller at Pensacola International Airport that she smelled burning oil.
Emily Shelton, 21, (left) was teaching a first-time flight student on Monday morning when they had to make an emergency landing
Heart-pounding dash camera footage captured the 1974 Piper Cherokee Warrior flying directly under an overhead highway sign structure on Interstate 10 in Pensacola, Florida
‘We do now have a burning oil smell in the cockpit,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if we’re going to make the airport.’
When the air traffic controller then asked for clarification, Shelton explained: ‘Our oil pressure is dropping down into the red and we do have fumes in the cockpit from the oil.’
Moments later, Shelton calmly informed the controller that ‘We are not making the airport, we’re going down on I-10.’
As she and the student then approached the interstate highway, Shelton once again called the air traffic control tower.
‘Just want to let you know we are lined up with I-10 trying to avoid the cars,’ she said at the time.
‘Roger. We’re going to get everybody over there as fast as I can to help you out,’ the air traffic controller replied.
Meanwhile, truck driver Eric Jordan noticed the plane’s shadow as it started to descend overhead.
He immediately slowed down and turned on his blinkers to alert the cars behind him of the pending danger.
Officials said the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing due to an engine failure
The interstate was temporarily shut down in the aftermath, but officials were quickly able to move the small plane to the side of the road
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‘If I wouldn’t have seen that shadow over my truck and slowed down, he would have been in the side of the cab,’ Jordan told WSVN. ‘As you saw in the video, it was a close call from the truck and the sign, but he landed, he kept it in control.’
‘By the grace of God, he was able to land that plane in the middle of the interstate, and they’re not getting hit by another vehicle, so it all worked out,’ he continued. ‘Everyone was safe.’
Jordan then went on to hail Shelton as a ‘good instructor,’ calling it a ‘miracle’ that she and the student ‘landed the thing with no problem.’
The interstate was temporarily shut down in the aftermath of the landing, but officials were quickly able to move the small aircraft to the side of the road, allowing traffic to once again flow through the corridor, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
After seeing the video, George Sigler, a retired Navy and commercial pilot, agreed that it was a daring landing.
‘They were probably doing somewhere around 60, 70 miles an hour in a glide,’ said Sigler, who is also the former owner of a Sky Warrior Flight School in Pensacola, where more than 14,000 military members and civilians have been trained.
‘So yeah, that’s still pretty darn fast, especially if you hit something solid like a sign. And then you still have altitude to deal with. So it was amazing. It’s one of those things that it’s hard to believe.’
Shelton (left) said she believes her training prepared her for the daring landing
But inside the aircraft, Shelton said she was assuring the student she would find a safe place to land the plane – even if that meant in the middle of the interstate.
‘I feel my training has prepared me exceptionally well for this moment,’ she said. ‘I’ve practiced this exact scenario many times – just never thought I’d actually have to execute it in real life.’
The emergency landing is now being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
