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Breathtaking Footage Shows the Moment a Plane Crashes into a Moving Vehicle in Texas

Nov. 5, 2012 1:54am Erica Ritz

When William Davis asked his wife Kandy to record his first solo round-trip flight, he probably didn’t think the video would make national news. He also probably didn’t think he would crash into a moving car.

At Northwest Regional Airport in Texas over the weekend, Davis was landing his plane when he collided with a moving SUV. Miraculously no one was killed, but officials are still trying to determine how exactly it happened.

According to reports, cars aren’t supposed to drive in that area when planes are taking off and landing.

“When cars cross that area they are supposed to stop and wait for any airplanes,” Deputy Chief Gilbert Caldwell of the Roanoke Fire Department explained. “Either the plane didn’t see the car or the car didn’t see the plane.”

Here are some still shots from the breathtaking video:

Video Shows Small Plane Crashing into Moving SUV at Denton County Airport

(Photo: WFAA)

“We couldn’t see anything at all, and then… all of a sudden… equipment was falling into the car,” Heather Laudo, one of the two people in the car at the time, remarked:

According to WFAA, it’s unclear whether Heather Laudo and her husband Frank even knew what hit them.

WFAA relates:

In the aftermath of the crash, airport manager Glen Hyde can be heard on Kandy Davis’ recording yelling, “Is anybody hurt?”

Hyde grabbed his first aid kit and ran to the Laudos’ vehicle. He immediately asked them whether they saw the stop sign… or the approaching plane.

“Whatever that is, it fell. Whatever that it is it hit our car,” they said.

“That is the landing gear,” Hyde responded. “You got hit by an airplane.”

“I know that!” Heather Laudo said in the recording.

“Why did you pull out if front of an airplane, is what I wanna know?” Hyde asked.

“We didn’t see it,” Frank Laudo said.

“We didn’t pull out in front of an airplane,” Heather Laudo added.

“Yes, you did!” Kandy Davis said. [Emphasis added]

Davis is thankful no one was killed in the accident, but won’t be making the same mistake twice. Though he’s apparently only a few weeks away from obtaining his pilot’s license, Davis said he probably won’t be flying again any time soon.

“Things like that make you reconsider what is important and what could have happened,” he concluded. “I have a young daughter and a wife, and they need me to be there to take care of them.”

Here’s the unbelievable video:

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (124)

THX-1138
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:13am
What genius put a runway 4″ from a frikkin’ road? It’s a miracle this doesn’t happen every day.

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- fb274
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:02am
  This was a Private Road, not a public road and individuals most likely used it as a short-cut to their destination.
  
  Report this comment
- mlimberg
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:15am
  I’ll bet Heather Laudo and her husband are Libs…. It’s a private road, so they can get to their home ten minutes sooner… but some how it’s the pilots fault? They likely live in the area? But stop signs mean nothing to them, until now?
  
  Easy to fix, because of Heather Laudo, close the road so all the neighbors suffer. She’s a Lib, the rest of the world is wrong… That’s how Libs roll….
  
  Report this comment
- floridareader
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:38am
  @THX
  http://tripandtravelblog.com/the-8-most-dangerous-airports-in-the-world/
  
  Report this comment
- rickc34
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:04pm
  They’re marked for death by Obama. No freak accident, they hold the clues.
  
  Report this comment
- KyleD
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:44pm
  A lot of people are blaming the car driver and explaining why a plane can’t see the car and while they’re technically right because the driver didn’t stop at a stop sign there was actually no sign. It was just painted on the road. I probably wouldn’t have stopped either… I’ve never encountered a stop that didn’t have an associated stop sign or light. I wouldn’t think to keep a close eye on the road for a fading painted word on the ground.
  
  Now, keep in mind that cars aren’t meant to let you see things in the air, if you’re tall this is especially an issue. I’m only 6’2″ and in my car I have a hard time seeing traffic lights when I’m stopped in front of them. I have to duck my head down in order to see when the light changes to green.
  
  So, yes, it’s technically the driver’s fault but really this is just a collision of two vehicles not meant to see each other that suddenly get thrown together because of a bad road.
  
  Report this comment
- Joseph in Fishers
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 1:36pm
  Note… low and long final- no flaps. A recipe for ‘bad happenings’ for all landings.
  
  Report this comment
- TSUNAMI_22
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 2:33pm
  @ Joseph in Fishers
  
  Note… low and long final- no flaps. A recipe for ‘bad happenings’ for all landings.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  I agree…..and what looks like a displaced threshold.
  
  He was too low on approach and probably had the cowl obscuring his view because he had no flaps to help keep that nose attitude where it should have been – down.
  
  I also had to laugh at the hours the reporter said the student needed……it only takes about 25 to 35 hours to grasp the training needed to safely pilot an aircraft and navigate within the national airspace system in any proficient capacity. The FAA requires a 40 hour minimum just to be somewhat on the safe side. If this guy was on a solo cross-country flight he had at least 15 to 20 hours under his belt already (assuming).
  
  If his instructor properly endorsed this student to fly cross country, he should have been better skilled than what I saw.
  
  Report this comment
- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 3:10pm
  THX is right there should not be a road and an airport together like that. Now is it the fault the private road owners or the air port, that is what needs to be decided.
  
  Report this comment
- GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:37pm
  Notice how the STEEL car takes little damage while ripping of the landing gear. ALUMINUM DOES NOT SHEAR STEEL. This is how we know the “airliners” that struck the wtc were only images, aluminum is WEAK!!
  
  Report this comment
- SIXGUNWEST
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:12pm
  I’ve landed at this airport hundreds of times. This guy was landing to the south. There is a sign that is a warning about low flying aircraft and “stop” is painted on the pavement so that attentive drivers can look to the left to see if any airplanes are landing or departing.
  
  The airport is divided by the runway and this is the only way you can get to the east side unless you drive across the runway. The runway taxiways are used for cars and aircraft but aircraft have the right of way. Clearly the driver wasn’t looking to the left for landing traffic that had the right of way and the student pilot was more intent on landing than checking for traffic on the road which is part of the taxiway on the north end of this airport. The good news here is, no one is hurt except for some ego’s perhaps.
  
  Report this comment
- DisforDingleberries
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 11:59am
  @GROUNDZERO IS NUCLEAR DEMOLITION X3
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:37pm
  Notice how the STEEL car takes little damage while ripping of the landing gear. ALUMINUM DOES NOT SHEAR STEEL. This is how we know the “airliners” that struck the wtc were only images, aluminum is WEAK!!
  –
  The landing gear is made to give and snap toward the back in the event of crash so that it doesn’t push upward into the cabin injuring/killing the passengers. And the car was able to pass some of the impact into the ground, whereas the momentum of the airplane (IN THE AIR) kept it going in the air…
  
  Also, have you ever seen a golf ball hit in slow motion? They’re extremely hard, but give when hit with a club. Take that same golf ball and throw it gently at a window and it bounces off. Throw it hard and you can break through the window. Swing at it and it likely puts a smoother hole through the glass without shattering the whole window. Ever heard of physics? You should study some. That stuff in high school does matter in the real world…
  
  Report this comment
- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 1:45pm
  .
  ““We couldn’t see anything at all, and then…”
  Want to bet she was on her cell phone?
  
  If I can see the plane, she could see the plane, she never looked.
  
  Report this comment
- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 1:46pm
  .
  “Either the plane didn’t see the car or the car didn’t see the plane.”
  Yo, genius, the plane can’t stop, the car can. End of story.
  
  Report this comment
ConnectTheDots
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:10am
When you are eligible for your first solo, you usually have about 10-12 hours in an airplane with an instructor. The absolutely toughest part of flying is landing.

We used to say any landing you walk away from is a good one, so this qualifies.

Anyway, that plane is a Cessna 172, a classic, easy to fly (very forgivable controls) aircraft. One of the other posters is correct — it’s difficult to see over the nose, especially on final approach. The airplane is slightly nose up to maintain the correct speed/descent ratio.

Clearly, the pilot was a little low on his approach, but you are taught to land at the beginning of the runway to give yourself plenty of room to stop without slamming on the brakes. Right before touchdown, the plane is in an aerodynamic stall, meaning it’s producing very little lift. It’s not the easiest thing to control at that point, you’re just waiting for the plane to settle onto the runway for the last 15-20 feet, literally floating down.

I surely hope the pilot will get back in the cockpit, but his insurance rates are probably going to go up quite a bit. Since he is a student pilot, if the FAA finds anyone at fault it would be the flight instructor who signed off on him soloing.

That all being said, I can’t imagine driving down a country road at the end of a runway and at least not look for a plane coming in (I’m like an excited little kid at the end of an airport’s runway, BTW).

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- threedoor
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:40am
  Absolutly. Don’t stop flying Will!
  
  Report this comment
- OldFlyGuy
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:30pm
  According to published airport info, the road is 30′ from runway 17 which has a threshhold that is displaced 400′, meaning further down the runway from the end of the runway surface, to clear a hill. This runway has visual approach lighting to assist the pilot to maintain the proper approach angle. The glide angle for this runway is 4.5 degrees. Doing a little math, an aircraft on the proper glide path should be no lower than about 35′ over the road and normally higher than that. When the NTSB publishes the report on this accident I suspect that the pilot was too low. This is a student pilot who was moments from landing, it is unlikely that he saw the car in time to make any changes that wouldn’t have made things worse.
  
  Report this comment
- OldFlyGuy
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:24pm
  By too low I mean well below the proper glide path.
  
  Report this comment
grimjack3791
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:10am
I blame Bush.

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Tri-ox
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:05am
Huh? They didn’t see the plane coming? Sorry, I don’t believe it – it almost looked intentional.

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- Salamander
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:49am
  At that angle, there is no ‘bearing drift’. Besides, most auto drivers wouldn’t know bearing drift if it crossed their vision. I didn’t notice any ‘landing lights’! Maybe they thought he was a crop-duster?
  
  Report this comment
JIbster
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:00am
Who designed that airport? It was just a matter of time.

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- Frederick_Douglass_Republican
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:04am
  My thought as well. What idiot puts a road so close to the edge of a runway, even if the road was inside airport property (was it? not sure). It was just waiting for something like this or worse. The pilot cannot see a car coming because it is outside (well below) his field of view, and a motorist who’s car is in Drive while his mind is in Neutral will drive right into the aircrafts path. There was a fatal crash in Kentucky when a business jet accidentally chose the “Trick of death” runway at a small airport and ran out of runway before having enough speed to take off. The pilot and co-pilot were in error, but I could only wonder why they would have a couple long runways and then one short runway. Not much different from putting a road just feet from the end of a runway.
  
  Report this comment
- txannie
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:09am
  The airport was there before the road was put in as access to let the big trucks, etc. in for the developers to put in a housing project being built close to the airport. They left the road that should have been taken out or closed off. It has to be paved so the big trucks and equiqment don’t get stuck in the mud when it rains. Now, it’s used as if it is a public road by everyone, which it is not. The owner/owners of the road are going to have to be included on any solution, but don’t blame the airport, a private road is not supposed to be used like a busy public road.
  
  Report this comment
- willbedone
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 1:59pm
  HorseFeathers!
  This is not a municipal airport. If you are going to drive on airport property (see the white fence, the car is on the inside of the airport boundry), you gotta use your head (is swivels) and your eyeballs.
  
  On the otherhand, as others have observed, the plane is low for his position. AND his vision would be on the runway for eye hand clues and not on looking for traffic. I bet you don’t look for crossing traffic when you are in the middle of the intersection do you.
  
  Report this comment
djmaine
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:41am
On my planet we call this an accident.

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dadsrootbeer
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:35am
A great metaphor picture of the current adminstration. Obammy at the wheel of the plane and Biden, Reid and Pelosi in the car.

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BlessedONE333
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:26am
“Why did you pull out if front of an airplane, is what I wanna know?” Hyde asked.
“We didn’t see it,” Frank Laudo said.
“We didn’t pull out in front of an airplane,” Heather Laudo added.
“Yes, you did!” Kandy Davis said.

CHARGE FRANK LAUDO WITH FAILURE TO STOP and their insurance company should pay for the damage to the plane. as for HEATHER LAUDO – STFU -

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- mlimberg
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:19am
  I agree, Heather Laudo is a mouthpiece… Now the road will get closed since she thinks she is right, and all the neighbors who stop look and cross a runway need to take another route, ten minutes longer…
  
  I smell Libs in the SUV…..
  
  Report this comment
- OklahomaBound
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:47am
  It’s ridiculous that this driver claims she didn’t drive in front of the plane, hey honey it’s on tape. There are not 4-way stop intersections that include aircraft since they can’t stop midair. Open your eyes or take responsibility for your actions!
  
  Report this comment
tajloc
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:14am
I disagree w/ most of you. Surely the driver was distracted but these days everyone talks,phones,eats listens and fiddles. The signage was not nearly enough to catch his attention over his wife’s noise.
Lets see…do I ever look left while I am driving along a white fence area after all a bull could be in there and ready to break down the fence. You can’t really tell about the plane height from the view in the drivers seat.
Stop sign, amber blinking lights and rumble strips are a minimum.
Really this is your regulators at work. Probably the strip should not be there until the owner of the road sells out. Keep the GOV out.
Finally this is a rookie in the plane. He was not much over the fence. His error.

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Onodacops
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:11am
Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full !

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Tex Expatriate
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:10am
The pilot could have avoided that crash, although it might have caused a stall.

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- RRFlyer
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:52am
  Having been a pilot for 40 years and still remembering my solo flight, NO pilot in the world is looking for cars when they land. You are concentrating on the runway straight ahead and if it is your first landing by yourself, there is nothing on your mind except the line on the runway way. Even after flying for thousands of hours pilots do not expect a car to be crossing the approach end of an active runway and it would be hard for a long time pilot to avoid.
  NO way he could have avoided that car. The driver of the car was solely at fault.
  
  Report this comment
- dont_drive_slow_in_the_left_lane_obliviot
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:30am
  Like others have said, the pilot is committed at this point, nothing he can do. he is not flying an F18 with enough power to abort, even if he hits the gas almost nothing would happen except he hits the car a little harder. on top of that it is unlikely he could have seen it as that area is a blind spot. he is doing everything he is supposed to do.
  
  this is all on the stupid SUV driver who although denies pulling out in front of an aircraft managed to get hit by one. friggin idiot. so the pilot ran a stop sign then? obama voter.
  
  Report this comment
- MN NICE
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:13am
  @RRFLYER I agree… All your focus is on flying the plane and putting it on the numbers… We’ve got to watch for deer on the runways up here. This time of year they are extremely tough to see and can be in front of you in an instant…
  
  I also noticed there was no landing lights – someone didn’t go through his checklist properly!! However, I can’t image having to watch for and avoid vehicles on final approach… That is a dumb ass spot for a road or runway!!
  
  Report this comment
ai4px
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 7:35am
I’ve been in a small aircraft, you can’t see downward over the nose (that thing with the engine in it and the big spinny thing on the front). The pilot had no way to see the car. What would be cool would be to have an arm like a rail road crossing barricade that came down when the lights at the airport were on. Pilots can click their mic 5 times in a row on the airport’s frequency an the runways lights come on for 20 minutes. That could lower an arm to stop cars from crossing. Maybe not the best suggestion in the world, but you have a pilot who can’t see below and a car driven by an idiot.

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- Kafir-Islamsux
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:00am
  Good points, but the road is a private road…have to deal with whoever owns it. But something should be doen.
  
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- TSUNAMI_22
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 2:47pm
  That airport had a 400 foot displaced threshold. Even if that road were a freeway with constant traffic that pilot should have been able to clear an 18 wheeler by at least 50 feet when he crossed that road.
  
  Yes, the people in the SUV were also at fault, but the severe lack of piloting skill contributed greatly to that situation.
  
  As a pilot myself (fixed-wing and helicopter), I saw all kind of things wrong with that approach.
  
  Those people don’t know how lucky they were to not have eaten any of that propeller. That whole situation could have ended in a double decapitation.
  
  Report this comment
DZ-015
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 7:27am
The painted “stop” on the pavement of the private road appears to be legally insufficient for a police officer to issue a citation to the driver of the SUV. A conventional DOT approved sign on a post with a supplemental sign warning of low flying planes is required, and rumble strips would be a good idea. Of course the FAA might have a say in the placement of any signposts to make sure they did not become hazards to planes themselves. It’s an amazing video; glad there were no fatalities.

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- txannie
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:12am
  The police cannot do a thing about this. It is a privately owned road.
  
  Report this comment
- DZ-015
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 1:33pm
  I’m no Texan, but where I come from, police have the right to write tickets for traffic violations on private property so long as any signs involved meet DOT regulations. This is most common in shopping centers, but also applies to private roads in subdivisions (not mere driveways).
  
  Report this comment
grimmster
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:53am
It’s not unheard of for these types of private airports, airports with a road cut through one end of the runway or another.Now was there signage to instruct people on how to travel through the landing strip, my guess is , yes. It is the total responsability of the drivers of land based vehicles to heed the warnings, not the pilots of aircraft. So what , the pilot has to hit the brakes and let the SUV go by? I also wonder what thye State Farm guy thought when he got that call……..

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kickagrandma
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:40am
Please tell me none of these people will vote tomorrow…..

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Willik
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:19am
Maybe he shouldn’t have a license if he quits after this. He doesn’t have the fortitude.

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magadog
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:15am
I think Frank may have been trying to off himself…can’t blame him after hear that beeotch he’s married to screeching “No we di”nt!”

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Joyzee
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:00am
Talking on a Cell ill bet

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- Salamander
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:46am
  Or, listening to the yap in the passenger’s seat–probably looking at her too, rather than paying attention to his driving! Hmmm, is listening to one’s wife ‘Distracted Driving’? By the way, why wasn’t there a ‘Watch for low-flying aircraft!’ sign? I always look for ‘hedge cutters’, even if the runway threshold is 1/4 mile away from the road! You just never know!
  
  Report this comment
Brainmuffin
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 5:36am
Unless that runway is shorter than it should be, the pilot is well low on approach. The driver of the SUV is an idiot.

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- TomFerrari
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:18am
  If he’s going to quit flying because “something COULD happen” he needs to quit driving, showering, and leaving his home. Per passenger mile, flying is the safest way to travel.
  
  I worked as a lineboy when I was learning to fly. A King Air at our FBO taxied into the 100LL pumps, striking them with a prop, setting the pumps and plane on fire. I rushed in with the tug and pulled the plane’s owner from the plane, the pilot hopped down using the tug as a step. (The nose gear had collapsed, raising the aft door into the air). MINUTES later, I received a phone call for the pilot. I asked for the nature of the call as he was “busy”. The INSURANCE AGENT on the other end said it was “about the plane that’s burning down on your ramp!” While waiting for the pilot, I asked the agent what that would do to his rates. I was surprised at the agent’s response, “Nothing. He’s the safest pilot in the country right now. He’ll never make that mistake again.”
  
  Shorter: Get back on the horse, cowboy.
  
  Report this comment
- RRFlyer
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:54am
  You are not a pilot, your opinions are only your own. He was not too low for that approach.
  
  Report this comment
karen162
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 5:28am
This isn’t the first time that SUV would be going down that road. They knew to look for airplanes. However, there should be a stop sign with instructions to look for aircraft. The SUV wasn’t paying attention and by the sound of that woman when asked why they pulled out in front of an airplane….she was probably yelling at her husband about something stupid and distracting him. LOL!

It’ll take the pilot some time, but he will go back up. I have no doubts.

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- Wu Ming Ren
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:15pm
  Your statement brings to mind local drivers just about anywhere that are used to traveling certain roads and don’t expect anything to happen because nothing ever happens and they’re usually the only ones on that road. There was a story about an out-of-town driver who hit a drunk that was walking across a road in the middle of the night. The locals all blamed the out-of-towner, saying, “Well, everybody knows that Frank walks home after the bar closes.” Franks house was across the street from the bar.
  
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nzkiwi
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 3:11am
It was a pure accident.

The car driver would not be looking up in the air high enough to spot the plane while driving, and the novice pilot would be concentrating hard on the spot that he had picked to touch down.

It’s a funny place to put a road, don’t you think?

And I agree with Republitarian – get back on the horse. Flying is a marvelous thing to do – and share.

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- republitarian
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 4:02am
  Hi, kiwi. I’ve appropriated that line from one of my family;s favorite movies, “The Man From Snowy River.” A classic for horsemen and a great period flick. I’m guessing you’ve seen it. :)
  
  Report this comment
- nzkiwi
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 4:35pm
  Oh yes indeedy. Great flick and very popular here at the time. Great song, too (cool change).
  
  Report this comment
- nzkiwi
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 5:04pm
  No, wait… Cool change wasn’t in that movie. Dang. I’m getting too old…
  
  Report this comment
Avi8or
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 3:11am
I really hope he gets back in the air. People may not know this, but there is a looming pilot shortage in America. We need all the new pilots we can get…

(And I feel sad to have to say, there is USUALLY not a road just feet from a runway.)

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sjcpilot
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 3:03am
Both were in the wrong, the driver of the car should have yielded to the, very visible, oncoming Cessna, but at the same time the Pilot of the Cessna should have made a go around, but it is possible he was already too low and maybe the car wasn’t even visible. There should be cross guards for the road. Unfortunately the Pilot’s dream of flying ended that day, sad decision, I can understand that after a traumatic experience like that and you think about your daughter but he was so close to getting his pilot’s license and to give that up is an unfulfilled dream.

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- loriann12
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:14am
  Did you watch the video? Do you really think it was possible for the pilot to just slam on the breaks and avoid the SUV? The SUV probably drove that road hundreds of times and never met an airplane and got lax. It’s like crossing railroad tracks and never meeting a train, you come to think you never will, and quit looking. I almost fell into that trap. We have a railroad crossing right at a traffic light, with space for one car in front of the tracks. Coming up to the red light, I was concentrating on the light, slowing down, and almost didn’t see the arm coming down for the train crossing….I had to speed up to get over the tracks and then slam on my breaks to stop at the light. That SUV had to have seen it, it was low enough. I agree with the poster that said the woman was probably yelling at her husband and distracting him. She sounded like my MIL.
  
  Report this comment
- Dustoff
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:17am
  Wrong! I hope you’re not a pilot. The power is at idle, even if you slammed it into the dash, it takes seconds before the power comes on and your climb begins.
  
  You better stick to video games.
- sjcpilot
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:47pm
  First off yes I am a pilot, you obviously aren’t. I understand the Cessna 172 couldn’t climb in an instant. The pilot could have tried to make an evasive go around, if the vehicle had been seen. Also, the pilot should have taken note that vehicles were crossing as he was on approached, and he should have made the landing farther down the runway, its a practice pilots do all the time to avoid trees (obstacles) near ends of runways, by steepening his approach he could have avoided even pass over the runway that low. A lot of variables could have been in place though, such as the runway was too short for a steep approach (too much speed), in that case he should have gone around. He was just inexperienced, first time soloing to an unfamiliar airport. It comes down to mainly the owner of that road, for not putting the proper signals in place for the drivers to STOP. But I do believe it was very avoidable by both the driver and pilot. Take some time to learn before you post slanderous comments like that.
  
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- Bruce1369
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 4:48pm
  “Evasive go-round” and what might that be sbjpilot? Maybe a little bank in that? You’re no pilot, you are an idiot.
  
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republitarian
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 2:51am
“Things like that make you reconsider what is important and what could have happened,” he concluded. “I have a young daughter and a wife, and they need me to be there to take care of them.”

I respect his decision (Hmm… I think that phrase means that I really don’t)

If a horse bucks you off, you get right back on.

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- sjcpilot
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 2:59am
  Totally agree.
  
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sillyfreshness
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 2:26am
Pilot error. He should have seen that car way ahead of time being up in the air and adjusted his altitude. Luckily nobody was killed.

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- Salamander
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:42am
  They were just following the ‘Right of Way’ Rule–they looked to the Right and went their way! The pilot, on the other hand, didn’t/couldn’t see the other vehicle approaching from the right, and so any good litigator will argue fault with the pilot, who failed to yield “Right of Way”! Just sayin? Interesting point, if one considers the plane to be the overtaking vehicle, it is ‘the burdened vehicle’, however the plane is less maneuverable, and thus the car should have yielded! Oops, am I mixing up my ‘Merrytime’ Law???
  
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- nc_writer
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:48am
  You are right that it was lucky nobody was killed…thank the Lord for that.
  
  However the pilot doesn’t really have an ability to see down on that side of the airplane. He is sitting in the left seat and where the SUV was is blocked by the control panel and side of the aircraft. To say that he made a mistake in not doing something that he wasn’t able to do is too high of a standard.
  
  That’s not to say that the pilot didn’t make mistakes here – he was definitely dragging it in low and flat and a go around would have been a good idea far earlier than the SUV being a factor. Being a student is about learning, being a pilot is about learning, all the time. I hope he learns from this and gets back in the cockpit.
  
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