Motorists on a busy freeway outside of Sao Paolo, Brazil got a bit of a shock this week when a small plane crashed right next to the roadway.
The plane's pilot didn't appear to have any control over the plane, and nearly smashed into a bunch of cars on an access road parallel to the highway. A Cessna 525B Citation isn't a big plane, but if one is sliding down a hillside toward the side of your car... well, I don't know about you, but I just might have crapped myself.
A security camera captured the action.
There were three people in the plane: two passengers, who weren't injured, and the pilot, who was seriously injured. Reports said that the pilot failed to apply his brakes on the runway at the Congonhas-São Paulo Airport, shooting off the end and nosediving the plane onto a hillside with the engines still running. Ouch.
Officials still aren't sure what caused the wreck. We have no idea either. So naturally, we turned to other people who don't really know. Rick Kennerly, a commenter on SkyNews' coverage of the crash, offered his two cents:
I'm a pilot. there's a lot in the vid that's not answered. the plane's high rate of speed at the far end of the runway is odd. Where the hell did he try to set down? wonder if it was ILS or visual landing? If his brakes weren't working, it would seem that going around and setting up for a soft field or short field approach with minimum airspeed, dragging it in over the fence, would have been a better approach. Can't tell from the vid what's really going on there.
Or the pilot could have been having an argument with that little angel and devil who supposedly hang out on each shoulder when you're contemplating doing something naughty. Who knows, but we're glad everyone survived.
Photo credit: SkyNews