Pilot Vincent Fraser made an incredibly smooth emergency landing on a North Carolina mountain highway after the engine on his Aero Commander 100 plane failed.
Fraser, who got his license in October 2021, explained that he and his father-in-law flew up from Florida to look at a piece of property they had purchased near Fontana Lake. As they were making their way back to the Macon County Airport, Fraser felt that something wasn’t right. He regained control of his plane and aimed it toward a Swain County river in the distance in order to mitigate the risk to others. As he began descending towards the water, he saw Highway 18 rural highway that ran right next to the river.
…I was going to commit to just dropping her in the river and hoping for the best and as we’re coming over the bridge, I look to my left and I see highway 18, and uh it’s just it’s just like a miracle… that it was there and I looked to my left and I’m like that’s it that’s where we’re gonna go highway 18. At this point we are low to the ground I would say less than a thousand feet from the from the ground and you can see in the video that’s when I made that left and I started going straight towards it.
