[v1r]

During a challenging flight on July 3, pilot Vincent Fraser faced a critical situation when the engine of his small plane malfunctioned three times, compelling him to execute an emergency landing amidst the rugged landscape just south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Captured on a GoPro camera, the footage reveals Fraser's adept navigation of his single-engine aircraft, narrowly avoiding power lines and skillfully landing in a highway's central turning lane, flanked by moving vehicles on both sides.

The crisis began over Fontana Lake, where Fraser first noticed the engine failure. The dense tree cover and mountainous terrain obscured any visible roads, presenting a dire situation. Fraser recalled, "Initially, there seemed to be no viable landing spots." He considered a bridge in the distance as a potential landing site, but dismissed the idea due to its low altitude and the risk posed by heavy traffic.

Just when the situation seemed dire, Fraser spotted a river before the bridge, which he was prepared to use for an emergency landing. However, a highway unexpectedly came into view, previously hidden by the surrounding mountains and valleys. Gratefully, Fraser had sufficient altitude to maneuver the plane towards the highway in a last-minute decision.

The GoPro footage dramatically captures Fraser's precise landing in the midst of the road, while vehicles continued to pass closely by.

[yellowshoeblues]

Wow, brava

[durt]

Nice landing, lucky to miss those wires

[Clubhouse]

(CNN) — When the engine on his small plane failed three times, Vincent Fraser had no choice but to make an emergency landing in mountainous terrain just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
GoPro video of his perilous landing in western North Carolina shows Fraser maneuvering his single-engine plane under power lines and into a highway's center turn lane, with cars traveling in two lanes on either side.
Fraser, who was flying with his father-in-law, spoke about his harrowing July 3 landing Monday morning on CNN's "New Day."
"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," Fraser told CNN's John Berman on Brianna Keilar.
They were over Fontana Lake when they first had engine failure and Fraser didn't see any roads because of the trees and mountainous landscape.
"So originally there were no options," Fraser said. At one point, he thought a bridge in the distance was their "best and only chance." But they were too low to make the bridge landing and there were too many vehicles on the bridge to attempt it without serious risk of hurting or killing someone, he explained.
So the next option was the river in front of the bridge, which Fraser said he was committed to landing on 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."
Fortunately, Fraser said he had enough altitude to turn the aircraft toward the highway at the last second.
The video from Fraser's GoPro camera shows him landing in the middle of the road as traffic passes by on either side of the aircraft.
"They had to have been so terrified," Fraser said of the people on the ground.






https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...ser/index.html

[Clubhouse]

Take off video from above article....

[v1r]

Originally Posted by Clubhouse ↗

Take off video from above article....

Gotta be a cool experience to land and take off from something like a highway. Thanks for the additional info and video.