The twin-engine plane landed near the street, in a tree

Jun 27, 2013 07:55 GMT  ·  By

A narrow escape from a plane crash has had everybody talking after a pilot forced to land an aircraft in the street has managed to avoid hitting an apartment complex.

According to a statement by Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro, relayed by the Sun Times, the pilot planned to land at Chicago Executive Airport.

Instead, he brought down the twin-engine plane right next to the Foxboro Apartment complex in Wheeling at roughly 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25.

“Normally those planes come over the lake, and come down, but we saw it wasn’t going to come down where it was supposed to,” Jakaila said.

“We ran inside the house and screamed, ‘A plane crashed!’ . . . We thought it might blow up,” 11-year-old Jakaila Johnson tells reporters.

WebProNews reports that the small plane landed in a tree at the corner of Wolf and Hintz Roads, after going down on Wolf Road.

The Beechcraft Super King Air 200 was damaged from a collision with a tree, but it did end up in upright position.

“It could have been in some buildings, but he was able to put it down on the street to avoid injuries to himself and people on the ground.

“There was a fair amount of damage, but for what he did, the airplane was pretty intact for landing short of the runway. He did a spectacular job of avoiding homes and cars,” Airport Manager Dennis Rouleau mentions.

The pilot has not been injured in the crash but he has undergone a check-up.

“Actually what happened was a Godsend. I think we’re very fortunate to have an airplane accident that was a walkaway situation. It’s very fortunate that nobody was hurt — either on the ground or those in the air,” Mayor Nick Helmer adds.