Horror moment out-of-control plane crashes into busy highway splitting aircraft in half & wiping out three cars
THIS is the horrifying moment an out-of-control plane crashes into a busy highway – splitting it in half and wiping out three cars.
The 1981 Piper PA-31 twin-engine plane was forced to carry out an emergency landing in Victoria, Texas at 3pm yesterday.
Shocking footage shows the aerial vehicle shooting down the US highway so quickly it barely stays in frame.
It appears to make a relatively flat landing on the road, but that doesn’t stop the chaos it caused.
The plane can later be seen sprawled out on the tarmac, completely ripped in half and debris scattered everywhere.
One of the cars that was caught up in the surreal moment is shown lying on its side with the windshield popped out and the body damaged, shards of it also ripped away.
Tony Ponyor witnessed the moment, saying: “I heard a plane, sounded like a Cessna over the top of me, and I’m thinking, ‘Man, it sounds really low.
“And then it started to waver, and rock back and forth, and I’m like I’m going to keep going forward. It sounds like it’s going to crash.
“Hearing that plane, I thought it was going to crash on me.
“The next thing I was worried about was the plane going to explode.
“That’s when I looked around and saw gasoline on the ground.
“There’s no smoke smell at all, which I was amazed nothing was on fire.
“Nothing was burning. I felt safe enough to go talk to the lady underneath the wing.”
He was also the first person to run to help the passengers of the plane.
Tony continued: “[I] Parked my car, ran up to the pilot to see if he was ok. He was still strapped in, but at an angle.
“I unstrapped him, tried to get him out of there, but the doors were blocked.
He was OK, bloody, but conscious, but he was fine, 70-to 80-year-old gentleman.”
Poynor went to help the woman most seriously injured.
“Her face was bloody, her hands were bloody, the EMT’s started working on her,” he said.
THE IMPACT
The aircraft landed on Mockingbird Lane and a feeder road to the Zac Lentz Parkway.
Only the pilot, who has not been named, was on board the aircraft at the time.
It hit three vehicles near the Victoria East High School, leaving three people with non-life-threatening injuries and a fourth needing a higher level of care, according to the police.
Deputy police chief Eline Moya said: “We are glad that it wasn’t worse than what it is.
“This is not something we see every day.
“But we are glad that people seem to be okay, and they are getting checked out.”
The highway that became the scene of the near-fatal crash is located 150 miles southwest of Houston.
The FAA said it will investigate the cause of the crash.
It is not currently known why the plane was making the emergency landing that led to the incident.