Pilot describes harrowing landing on North Carolina highway

‘There were so many things that could have been catastrophic, but they didn’t happen,’ Sheriff says

Pilot Vincent Fraser was forced to make an emergency landing on a North Carolina highway after his plane engine failed three times.

South of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the harrowing episode was captured on video. The footage shows Mr Fraser flying his plane beneath power lines and landing in the centre turn lane on the highway as cars drive in both directions.

Mr Fraser was flying with his father-in-law on 3 July when the event took place.

“The only thing really going through my head was I needed to keep my father-in-law safe, and I needed to keep the people on the ground safe, and I was just trying to do it the best that I can without hurting anybody,” he told CNN.

During the first engine failure, the pair were flying over Fontana Lake and Mr Fraser couldn’t see any roads.

“So originally there were no options,” he told the network, before sharing that he saw a bridge far away and thought it was their “best and only chance”.

But they were already too close to the ground to make it there, and there were too many cars on the bridge to attempt a landing.

The next option Mr Fraser considered was landing in the river in front of the bridge. He told CNN he had committed to that plan when “by some miracle, that highway ... just showed up to my left because you couldn’t see it before because of the mountains and the valleys and the trees”.

“They had to have been so terrified,” Mr Fraser said, referring to the drivers on the highway where he landed.

“What an OUTSTANDING job and no injuries. AMAZING,” Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran wrote on Facebook.

“There were so many things that could have been catastrophic, but they didn’t happen,” Mr Cochran told CNN.

A mechanic inspected the plane, which was towed up the mountain to a higher and longer road, from where Mr Fraser was able to take off three days later.

He described the takeoff as “terrifying”.

“I went back to when I was in the Marine Corps and made it my mission to get off that mountain. And so you know, I knew the plane was safe, I knew the plane has been checked out, I knew I had the training,” Mr Fraser said.

“I honestly just wanted to turn it off, get out, throw up. You just can’t believe this is actually happening,” he added.