https://www.kbtx.com/2023/10/09/pilot-thankful-be-alive-after-making-emergency-landing-empty-lot/Couldn't find any audio at Grand Prairie, link is up, but no audio.
some pretty incredible video in the story above.
nice job !
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA) - A 26-year-old pilot from Texas is recounting how he narrowly avoided disaster when he had to make an emergency landing after a possible mechanical failure.
Uzziel “Uzi” Salinas, 26, plans to become an airline pilot, but right now, he’s new to the skies, having just gotten his pilot’s license in May through training with Aviator Air Flight School in Grand Prairie.
“Trying to get my license certificates out of the way and to keep on going. That feel I get when I’m up in the air and that takeoff is just thrilling to me,” Salinas said.
He’s currently building hours to become a flight instructor, so he and a friend rented one of the flight school’s planes last Monday.
As Salinas was returning to the airport, he noticed he wasn’t getting any thrust or lift in the plane and couldn’t thwart a sudden descent. The issue was sparked by a possible mechanical failure.
“I know there’s a risk any time I go up flying,” Salinas said. “I realized that I was not gonna be able to make it, so I declared an emergency.”
The plane was flying above Arlington at the time, and finding a safe place to land wasn’t easy.
“I saw nothing but buildings, nothing but traffic, residential buildings, and that definitely did scare me, did make me worry. I had to find the best place to land, and I had to do it with minimal damage and without hurting anyone on the ground. That was my focus at that moment,” Salinas said.
The pilot chose an empty lot next to a warehouse, aiming for a chain link fence, and it proved to be a good choice. The plane came to a screeching halt with no one injured.
“I was hoping for that fence to catch us to decrease our airspeed,” Salinas said. “I grabbed his hand. He grabbed mine, and we’re just thankful to be alive.”
Salinas credits his training at Aviator Air for helping him handle the emergency, and he says he has already been back flying since the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
