A small Cessna aircraft made an emergency landing in Orlando, Florida on August 19. Dramatic video captures the incident as it occurred. Amazingly, the pilot walked away and there was very little collateral damage.
Actually, the appropriate term here is crash landing. The Cessna 182 is seen on video just as it stalls above University Boulevard in Orlando. In this instance, we're referring to an aerodynamic stall – the point at which the wing loses lift due to reduced airflow over it. The aircraft plunges downward, banking slightly to the right as it hits the road just ahead of a heavy pocket of traffic. The pilot somehow manages to avoid not just other cars, but poles and power lines as well. The Cessna comes to a rest just off the road in a driveway, with the nose stuck into the ground.
According to a follow-up report from NBC News, the pilot was Remy Colin and yes, he walked away from the crash. He didn't walk away without any injuries, though. He apparently hit his head hard enough to open a gash on his forehead. Still, considering this was a legit crash on a busy street, a bump on the head and a bent airplane is pretty much the best-case scenario in this situation.
As for the cause of the crash, Colin admits point-blank that he misjudged his fuel. That's a highbrow way of saying he ran out of gas, and that could present a problem for him going forward in the eyes of the FAA. Pilot awareness is obviously important, as one doesn't simply pull over as you would in a car if the fuel runs out. It's unclear if gauges were malfunctioning, but pilots are also taught how to calculate fuel usage with the known quantity in the tank. As a general guideline, pilots should never get close to empty. Or at least, that's what your humble author was taught in private pilot ground school so many years ago.
In any case, Colin survived the crash and the only damage was to his Cessna. It wasn't a smooth emergency landing like we saw back in July, but the situation certainly could've been far worse.
