Photo: Minnesota State Patrol
On this episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not, we have a cleaved front-wheel drive mid-size sedan. But this isn't Ripley's. The Ford Fusion in the adjacent photo gallery happened to be in the way of a small aircraft's emergency highway landing, believe it or not.
Before we go any futher, there are two things we'd like to mention: the ordeal was photographed by the Minnesota State Patrol and nobody got hurt. On March 31st, 57-year-old David Gowan was enjoying his 1979 Mooney CorpM20K on a little journey from Hawley, Minnesota, to Minot, North Dakota.
On the way to Minot, Gowan's plane experienced a power failure at approximately 1,000 feet (305 m) above ground level. Considering that there was no landing strip near him to usher the aircraft safe and sound to the ground, Gowan used a pilot's proverbial last resort: an emergency landing. Eventually, our pilot managed to land this bird down on Highway 10, east of Hawley, just south of the nearest landing strip.
But touchdown on a highway isn't as simple as it sounds. It's remarkable that Gowan landed without turning his old-school plane into a great ball of fire. However, it's even more remarkable that collateral damage was kept to a minimum. Well, sort of. Corey Ernst, the driver of a 2014 Ford Fusion, was in the way of Gowan's defective small aircraft and you know what some say: Lady Luck only comes with bangs.
As you can see in the adjacent photos, the propeller got to slice only the back left side of the Fusion because Ernst got out of Gowan's way by driving into a ditch. Now imagine how Ernst will explain the happening to the insurance company: "Hey, someone turned my car into sliced bread. Hell no, butter won't make it better."
On the way to Minot, Gowan's plane experienced a power failure at approximately 1,000 feet (305 m) above ground level. Considering that there was no landing strip near him to usher the aircraft safe and sound to the ground, Gowan used a pilot's proverbial last resort: an emergency landing. Eventually, our pilot managed to land this bird down on Highway 10, east of Hawley, just south of the nearest landing strip.
But touchdown on a highway isn't as simple as it sounds. It's remarkable that Gowan landed without turning his old-school plane into a great ball of fire. However, it's even more remarkable that collateral damage was kept to a minimum. Well, sort of. Corey Ernst, the driver of a 2014 Ford Fusion, was in the way of Gowan's defective small aircraft and you know what some say: Lady Luck only comes with bangs.
As you can see in the adjacent photos, the propeller got to slice only the back left side of the Fusion because Ernst got out of Gowan's way by driving into a ditch. Now imagine how Ernst will explain the happening to the insurance company: "Hey, someone turned my car into sliced bread. Hell no, butter won't make it better."
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