A LIGHT aircraft landed on Peninsula Link near Eramosa Rd, Moorooduc because of heavy fog.
PICTURE: ANDREW BATSCH
UPDATE 2.10pm: A PILOT saved “himself, the plane and the public” in an emergency landing in Moorooduc today.
Peninsula Aero Club secretary Jack Vevers said the pilot and his passenger took off from Tyabb airport this morning for a joy flight, but fog prevented a safe landing.
> > PICTURES: Plane lands on Peninsula Link
Visibility diminished and the three nearest airports - Moorabbin, Tooradin and Tyabb - were all blanketed in thick fog, so he had to make a choice.
The plane was forced to land on the unfinished Peninsula Link construction site, near Bungower Rd, Moorooduc.
“His training kicked in and he saved the plane, himself and the public,’’ Mr Vevers said.
“It was a precautionary landing and he did absolutely the right thing.’’
There was no damage to the Cessna and both the pilot and his passenger were uninjured in the landing.
Mr Vevers said the pilot, who is also a member of the aero club and very experienced, would wait for conditions to clear and the plane would take off from Peninsula Link when appropriate.
“The surface is in perfect condition for a take off,’’ he said.
The pilot joked he was “surveying the freeway” after his plane made the emergency landing.
Neighbouring farm owner Jason Fullerton said he was pruning when he thought he heard a car “driving into the backyard”.
“I looked up and saw the plane, it was dropping right down beside the house,” he said.
“I thought ‘these guys must be in trouble’.
“But it was a pretty good landing.”
Mr Fullerton said two men, in their 50s, were standing near the plane and told him they were “surveying the freeway”.
“The freeway has already come in handy,” he said.
Source: http://frankston-leader.whereilive.com.au
No comments:
Post a Comment