Two teenage pilots successfully landed a Cessna 172 aircraft in emergency, at a road just south of Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma, after it lost power on August 19.
The incident happened when the 18-year-old certified Pilot, Eric Nichols and his pilot-in-training friend Tanner Price were flying from Riverside Airport and performing a touch and go at Tulsa International Airport.
According to Nichols, the plane had just passed the runway when its speed indicator dropped to zero. ‘We had about 1,900 RPMs and I knew that wasn’t going to be enough to get us anywhere, so we didn’t have enough runway, I told tower, ‘I’m putting it down,’ and I set it down on the road here,’ said Nichols.
The teenagers carefully landed the plane between two utility poles and avoided hitting a car running on the road. Tulsa Fire Airport Chief, Michael Atchison was impressed with the boys’ performance in such life-threatening situation. “Real proud of those guys…They did a good job ’cause, you know, the tense moments right there, for them to lay it down, find a place to land it when they lost all the power. They did a great job,” Atchison said.
Nichols has only 61 hours of training while Tanner has just 13. Christensen Aviation, the owner of the plane, confirmed that neither the plane was damaged nor anyone was injured.
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American Airlines flight AA-1353 made an emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 29th.
