A chaotic landing in which a small passenger plane hit a guardrail Friday forced it to use a Virginia highway as a landing strip.
Southern Airways Express Flight 246 made a “hard landing” on the Loudoun County Parkway shortly after takeoff from nearby Washington Dulles International Airport at 12:50 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Fortunately, the seven passengers, including a 15-year-old boy, were not injured and the plane was not hit by any other vehicles on the road, the airline said.
Officials have not said what caused the pilot to make an emergency landing just two minutes into the flight, but the region was experiencing snowfall at the time.
The flight was scheduled to depart Dulles at 12:45 p.m. and head to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to FlightAware data.
Dulles told X The airline said it received a report that a departing aircraft had landed on a nearby road outside the airport grounds.
The car landed in the westbound lane of the road, blocking traffic for several hours.
great footage Shared by State Department of Transportation shows a tow truck slowly towing a single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan off the highway, surrounded by the flashing lights of dozens of emergency vehicles.
Virginia State Police identified the pilot as Ahmed Awais, 27, of Florida. A second crew member, four adult passengers and one teenage passenger were also on board.
Southern Airways Express CEO Stan Little said in a statement: “We are relieved to report that no one was injured and all passengers are safe.”
“We are grateful to the pilots for doing what they were trained to do, putting the safety of their passengers first. We are working closely with authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation.”
The FAA plans to investigate the emergency landing.
