Dramatic video shows the moment the pilot of a small plane made a “textbook” emergency landing on just one wheel.
Footage from Tuesday afternoon shows a Cape Air Cessna 402C heading back to Boston’s Logan Airport after a problem with its landing gear was detected shortly after takeoff for Maine. WCVB reported.
As the plane approached the airport, only the wheel under its left wing came out – on which the pilot managed to land easily. The footage shows the plane eventually turning to one side without any wheels and then skidding to a stop.
The plane's pilot and two passengers – including a Cape Air trainee – ejected immediately, all uninjured.
“It was a textbook landing. They did it absolutely perfect,” aviation expert John Nance told WCVB, emphasizing that the pilot's training likely avoided the rare emergency.
“This is not something you want to experience — whether you're flying a 747, a Cessna or any other aircraft,” Nance said.
Commercial pilot Patrick Smith also praised the unidentified pilot's skill.
“They definitely knew who they were dealing with and what was going to happen,” Smith said. told WBZ,
“The landing technique here would be to keep the plane on the existing landing gear for as long as possible. That's not easy to do and at a certain point, when you run out of momentum, the plane will fall over on the other side.”
The incident caused the plane to circle the airport for at least an hour, delaying the plane's arrival at Logan Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
