Emergency Landing- Beirut

[Benet]

From Reuters TV:

1. HIGHWAY WITH SOLDIERS AND PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND SMALL PLANE THAT WAS FORCED TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON THE HIGHWAY
2. MAN LOOKING INTO COCKPIT OF PLANE
3. PEOPLE AND SOLDIERS GATHERED AROUND PLANE
4. CLOSEUP OF 'AEROCLUB' SIGN ON PLANE
5. VARIOUS OF POLICE AND SOLDIERS AROUND PLANE/POLICE AND SOLDIERS DIRECTING TRAFFIC AROUND THE PLANE
6. OFFICIALS CLIMBING ONTO PLANE IN PREPARATION FOR IT TO BE MOVED
7. ROAD
7. MEN PULLING PLANE ALONG HIGHWAY

STORY: A small plane made an emergency landing on a busy Beirut highway on Saturday (July 3), but the pilot had the presence of mind to first stick his head out of the window and yell at the traffic to stop, witnesses said.
There were no injuries and no visible damage to the plane, which landed on a road on the southern edge of the Lebanese capital. Soldiers sealed off the area.
Airport officials said the Cessna 172 was on a training flight when it developed mechanical problems.
One witness said he saw the plane's pilot yell at a boy on a motorbike to tell him to stop the traffic because he had to land the plane.
Another witness said the pilot was very calm and came down slowly during the emergency landing.

The whole multimedia experience is at this site (http://216.133.85.103/browse/nvo.aspx)

If you click the URL after today, you wil need to navigate back to 3 July to find the story!

Benet

[Benet]

At the bottom of the page there's a whole bunch of links to Windows Media and Real video streams, at different bandwidths - click on of these and see what happens!

Benet

[Maxflyer]

The links will work. Ignore the fact that the little pointy hand symbol doesn't appear and click anyway.

[Farrell]

I wish stuff like this happened in Lyon!.....;)


BEIRUT (Reuters) - A small plane made an emergency landing on a busy Beirut highway on Saturday, but the pilot had the presence of mind to first stick his head out of the window and yell at the traffic to stop, witnesses said.



There were no injuries and no visible damage to the plane, which landed on a road on the southern edge of the Lebanese capital. Soldiers sealed off the area.


Airport officials said the Cessna 172 was on a training flight when it developed mechanical problems.


"I heard my neighbors shouting and came out to look," said Mohammad Matariya, who lives nearby.


"I saw the plane starting to come down, then I saw the pilot put his head out of the window and tell a boy on a motorbike: 'Stop the traffic, I have to land!'"


"The pilot was great, really brave," another witness Ahmad Abu Samir said. "He came down so slowly, very calmly. It could have been so much worse."

[aircraftfixer]

From what I undrstand the aircraft was still under power and was flown along the road at low level until a clear area was available. I don't know what was the problem.

I think one of your regular posters here once landed on a road in Lebanon in 1978 or 1979, but he had to do a runner and leave the aircraft

Perhaps he will tell you about it.

Josh

[locksmith]

think one of your regular posters here once landed on a road in Lebanon in 1978 or 1979,

Are you not going to tell us who?

[aircraftfixer]

http://www.sharpshooter-maj.com/Images/profil06/israel.jpg

IDF/AF RF-4E no.485

A good friend of mine was flying the sister of this one around 1979 over Lebanon.

He was hit and with engine out he had to land on a road in South Lebanon. He touched down dead stick at about 180 Knots and managed to ground roll along the road for about 2 Km trying to reach IDF/Army lines but stopped short.

He and his nav managed to get the photo tapes and run like hell for over 2Km to reach some of their own soldiers while the Syrians fired machine guns at them.

A special sortie was flown to destroy the aircraft and its hi tec equipment.

This would never have been reported but was it quite normal for recon aircraft to be shot down around that time.