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plane's engine failed and the pilot made an emergency landing on 74 near Sandlin Bridge in Swain County
Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
On Sunday just before noon, those driving on US Highway 74 near Sandlin Bridge in Swain County got the scare of a lifetime, as a small, single-engine aircraft made an emergency landing onto the highway after engine failure.
“The pilot said he was flying around looking at the lake when the engine failed, and so he began looking for a place to land. There was no time to call 911 or anything,” Swain Emergency Management Director David Breedlove said. “He landed on the highway before Sandlin Bridge and coasted down the hill. The 911 calls came in from motorists driving by after the plane landed.”
If you missed the hair-raising landing and were driving by after, it looked rather odd seeing several North Carolina State Highway Patrol and Swain County Sheriff’s deputies surrounding an aircraft at Johnson Road.
“The State Highway Patrol are the ones investigating the incident, but I believe the pilot set the plane down in oncoming traffic just over the power lines and there was one car coming. I believe Deputy Bill Waldroup was the first one on the scene and then highway patrol arrived shortly after,” Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran said.
Sheriff Cochran added the dispatch call came in as a plane crash, but thankfully that was not the case and neither of the two passengers in the plane or no one driving on the road was injured.
“The call came in as a plane crash, so we’re just very thankful that it wasn’t, cause the circumstances would've been very different,” he said.