INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A family vacation had an unexpected stop in Indian River County on Friday when a Georgia man piloting his personal aircraft had to make an emergency landing on State Road 60 a couple of miles west of Interstate 95, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Atlanta man was traveling with his wife and two of his four children when he made the safe landing on State Road 60 at 146th Avenue about 11:45 a.m., the Sheriff’s Office said. No one was hurt and the plane was not damaged.
At 4:45 p.m., county officials closed State Road 60 to allow the family to relaunch the plane. It took off 10 minutes later without incident.
The pilot, Terrell Barden, was traveling with his wife, Nancy, his 13-year-old daughter, Maris, and his 15-year-old son, Raleigh. The family was heading to the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas.
As they flew over Indian River, the plane suddenly lost power, he said. No information was available about what caused the malfunction.
“I tried to restart it as quick as I could,” Terrell Barden said. “I did not get good results.”
As the plane started to slowly drop, the teenagers buckled up.
“I was a little scared so I sat there and started praying,” Maris said.
Terrell Barden said after attempts to restart the plane failed, he had to make a decision. The Vero Beach Municipal Airport was 12 miles away but at his elevation, he wouldn’t make it that far.
“My priority was getting the family down safe with no options for problems,” he said.
Terrell Barden landed the plane with no problems and pulled it into a turn lane.
“I dropped down in front of a semi-truck,” Barden said. “I knew he could slow down any traffic behind us. There was a little bit of traffic ahead of us, but the cars were several hundred feet away.”
Joyce Bohan of Vero Beach said she was with her husband and 15-year-old twin grandsons traveling west on State Road 60 when they saw the plane landing in the eastbound lanes.
“The pilot handled it deftly,” Bohan said. “He avoided the cars and nicely set down. You’d think you’d be frightened to see a plane landing like that, but we weren’t.”
In 10 years of flying, Terrell Barden said he never had a problem.
“My dad always does a good job of landing,” Maris said.
The plane is a fixed wing, single engine aircraft manufactured by Raytheon in 1998, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Source: http://www.tcpalm.com
Pilot Terrell Barden
