Small plane makes 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 a Georgia, striking three vehicles and leaving two people with minor injuries, authorities said.

The Hawker Beechcraft BE-36 landed Monday on Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta, due to reported engine issues, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and Gainesville police.

“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.”