Small plane makes an emergency landing on a busy Georgia road and strikes 3 vehicles

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A single-engine plane made an emergency landing on a busy road in Georgia, striking three vehicles and leaving two people with minor injuries, authorities said, after one of the two pilots on board told air traffic controllers to let his wife and parents know he loved them.

The Hawker Beechcraft Bonanza landed Monday on Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. It was headed to Cherokee County Regional Airport in Canton from Gainesville’s Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport. The plane turned back after experiencing problems with the engine just after departure, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.

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The plane didn’t have enough power to make it to the airport. It landed on the road, the NTSB said.

“I think we’re not going to make it,” air traffic audio recorded by LiveATC.net said. “Please tell my wife, Molly, I love her, and my parents. I love them so much.”

More than 10 minutes later, “We’re going to be fine” is heard on the recording.

“We lost our engine taking off out of Gainesville,” pilot Thomas Rogers told WAGA-TV. “We tried to glide back, did everything by the book, but realized we weren’t going to make it back with how far out we were, so we came down on the road.”

The plane struck three cars, dislodging a fuel tank into one of them, Gainesville police Capt. Kevin Holbrook said. Two people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, he said.

“The fact that they were able to land in the middle of hundreds of vehicles and only hit three of them, no power lines is very remarkable,” Holbrook said, noting that the road is one of the main arteries through northeast Georgia. “The fact that no one was seriously injured or killed is just astonishing.”