A small private plane collided with a Hyundai in McKinney, Texas. As strange as it may sound, it is real. The plane was attempting an emergency landing but missed the runway due to a technical problem and slammed into the car.
The driver of the silver Hyundai Sonata was minding his own business driving on the road near Aero County Airport. A prop plane missed the runway during a landing maneuver, went through the fence, which can't even slow it down, and straight into the car.
The video caught by Jack Schneider, who works nearby, shows the airplane overshooting the runway at high speed. After it hits the Hyundai, two other vehicles stop behind, avoiding a multiple-car collision.
Jack Schneider says he saw the plane going full steam ahead with wheels smoking along the end of the runway and being unable to stop in time. Well, it did stop, eventually, when it crashed into a car. Three people, the female driver of the Hyundai and two on board the plane, were examined at the scene of the crash.
Only the driver was admitted to hospital and treated for minor injuries. She was obviously shaken by the incident. Who would expect to run into a plane on the road? The two men who were on the small plane did not require any medical attention.
But both the plane and the car sustained serious damage. We don't know much (more like nothing) about what makes a plane become a write-off. But the car surely isn't going anywhere with the engine compartment deformed like that.
The McKinney Fire Department responded to the unusual call at 12:30 on Saturday, November 11. The Lancair IV-P had taken off from Midland Airpark, some 330 miles from McKinney. The pilot admitted to trying the landing at the Aero County Airport for the first time.
The failed landing reportedly happened due to a fault that occurred at the brakes of the plane. Apparently, the reverse thrust, which slows the plane down upon landing, was not functional either. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the accident. Preliminary data shows that there was a pressurization issue at 25,000, which forced the pilot to perform a rapid descent. He aborted the first landing attempt and crashed into a car on the second one.
The Lancair IV-P project is a high-performance four-seat private airplane set in motion by a turboprop engine. It is capable of cruise speeds of over 300 knots (345 mph/556 kph) at altitudes up to 30,000 feet (9,144 meters).
We have seen cars hitting other cars every day. But planes hitting cars, not so often. The insurance agent is going to have a hard time believing it. Probably, planes don't have an insurance clause in case of flying into cars, and car insurance does not usually cover such incidents either.
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