and the pilot gets out and directs traffic!!!

Picture: Mercury Newspaper Photographer Sam Rosewarne


Shocked motorists watched in horror as a pilot crash-landed his small plane on a busy Hobart highway on Sunday morning.

The pilot was unhurt, and ran immediately from the plane and stopped traffic.

News Limited reported that the pilot was 18-year-old Patrick Humphrey, a trainee pilot with the Australian Airforce who was practising aerobatics when his plane's engine stalled, forcing him down on one of the state's busiest highways shortly after 10am.

The plane crashed into an embankment on the Brooker Highway.

Witness Kos Karydis told AAP he thought the plane was performing in an Easter holiday display.

"I saw the aircraft in the sky, and I thought it was part of some sort of Easter exhibition," he said.

"Then it was getting lower and I thought this isn't right. I thought it might crash into Mt Wellington."

Mr Karydis said the plane had already crashed when he arrived at the scene, and he saw the driver get out and run.

Brad Almond, a witness who was at the scene soon after the plane came down, told ABC radio debris was spread over 100 metres from the plane.

"It must have been incredibly lucky to get a gap in the traffic," he said.

"I did see a couple of motor vehicles close by straight away after the accident. So I'm imagining it came very close to actually hitting a car."

The highway was closed to traffic re-opened after two hours.
http://news.ninemsn.com.a...rt-highway

This is a very busy, major route into Tasmanias capital city...one that my husband travels numerous times every day!!!
thank goodness it was a Sunday public holiday morning and not a week day...could have been very nasty!!

Glad nobody was hurt.

Fauxie said:

it was amazing!!!! i thought hubby was pulling my leg when he told us...til my sister checked out the local rags website.
traffic was a nightmare today coming home from our easter break, im sure traffic on the brooker would have been the same....if it happened today, it could have been so much worse.

What a cool, calm, and collected young man under pressure.

http://www.facebook.com/A...497?ref=mf
FB

prb said:

1,462 fans already

mostbeautifulboy said:

and mostly tasmanians....nothing like this ever happens here

He is very lucky!
A friend of mine, her husband and two children all perished in a light plane crash in Sydney about 8 years ago.

I sill remember that day when i saw it on the news, i cried non stop.

chocolatehandles said:

prb said:

Her name was Jose, I've never forgotten her, the nicest person ever!

This is their story....

http://www.google.com.au/...Wf8z6U4jug

oops totally wrong thread
[Edited 4/5/10 3:52am]

chocolatehandles said:

wow, that is so sad.
im sorry if i have dragged up bad memories for you

ZombieKitten said:

saw i before you deleted

bunny boiler

prb said:

I bet that was scary!

ZombieKitten said:

MrsMdiver said:

as i said earlier...it was perfect timing...little traffic, which is very unusal.

he literally had to fly under a cantilever overpass, that isnt that high to start with, how he did that in its self was a miracle.
Easter miracle!!

steve drives up and down that stretch of road too many times a day to count, to get back to his works depot...
hoons frequent it all the time, and do stupid things...steve got rear ended in his truck once coz someone stopped dead to let someone merge from the cantilever.....3 cars in front of steve stopped suddenly, he pulled up...but the car behind didnt...no one was hurt....first driver was oblivious
lots of accidents happen but i never thought a plane would crash there

prb said:

that is lucky like this story:

"On midsummer eve of that year, the dividing wall between the main pits and the foundations gave way and a significant portion of the mine collapsed. This could easily have become a great catastrophe, killing and trapping the hundreds of men working in the mine. Fortunately, it occurred on Midsummer's Eve, one of the few days of the year which the miners were not working (the other being Christmas)."

The Copper Mine at Falun

(this is the entrance)

ZombieKitten said:

i can feel a new thread coming on.

"lucky breaks"

prb said:

you were supposed to see the prince symbol!!!

ZombieKitten said:

I saw them both and was JUST about to say so!

ZombieKitten said:

i was exhausted last night...and orging without my glasses on

prb said:

I finally FINALLY worked that picture into a conversation in a natural kind of way (OK it was a stretch ) I've been waiting since 1996!

well, this is different. normally when i think of Taz, all i can think of is Ricky Ponting and the Port Arthur massacre.

whistle said:

What about Princess Mary?

i havent been back to port arthur since the massacre...just spent easter down that way, but didnt go to the site. My hubby and i used to go there all the time, spent part of our honeymoon there...our rugrat has never been yet

ZombieKitten said: