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  • Ever since human beings left the safety of the ground and aimed for the sky, there was

  • one big concern about the whole flying thinghow to get back to earth safely. And it

  • became even more important once we had airplanes! Yup. So what if there’s no airport nearby?

  • Oops. It turns out the best bet is landing on roadways, but only a few trained pilots

  • can handle such a task, and only the best can handle the most extreme cases.

  • Did you know that landing a plane on a road is highly illegal? Yes, in most countries

  • it surely is, but there’s also a universal rule of necessity. As pilots often say themselves:

  • Necessity knows no law’. Or there’s another saying with a bit more of a dark sense

  • of humor: ‘Total engine failure imposes surprise destinations.’ I’ll say.

  • Jokes aside, the rule of necessity implies that in an emergency, a pilot can land a plane

  • by any means possible. The only important thing is the effort to save lives. The first

  • thing a pilot would look for as a landing place would be a highway with no turning points

  • over a significant distance. While theyre not intended for an airplane landing, they

  • are, in fact, suitable, because theyre well-lit, have a relatively smooth surface,

  • and are wide enough to fit a medium-sized plane.

  • There are some major challenges though. Look at the airstrip, and at the highway from up

  • above, as a pilot would see it. They look similar at first glance, but then you start

  • to notice the differences that could cause a lot of trouble. For example, it’s not

  • a problem for cars if there’s a dense forest alongside the road. But for a plane, that

  • could be crucial. The same goes for street lights, road signs and other obstacles that

  • a plane would run into. The worst is, of course, road bridges. If a plane can’t stop before

  • one of these, the collision would be a disaster. Fortunately, cases of big airplanes landing

  • on a highway are extremely rare. But believe it or not, other smaller aircraft land on

  • roads regularly. There are no official numbers on that matter, but by some accounts, there

  • are at least dozens of reports emerging in a single year that involve a lightweight plane

  • having an emergency landing on a road. In most cases, this happens due to engine malfunction.

  • A bit rarer is so-calledfuel starvation’, and sometimes youll come across something

  • likeneeded to ditch a passengernoted as the cause. Well, that mustve been one

  • annoying passenger, to say the least. In 1956, the strangest thing happened – a

  • man decided to land a plane in the middle of Manhattanto win a bet. Yes, I kid you

  • not, this really happened! This desperate daredevil was Thomas Fitzpatrick, a person

  • of immense piloting skill, which was arguably used in the wrong wayjust to get a prize!

  • But his achievement was still quite impressive, since he avoided any damage either to himself,

  • the aircraft, or the city’s property. Headlines of newspapers exploded that day, telling about

  • a single-engine plane landing on St. Nicholas Avenue near 191st Street.

  • But if you think a fine stopped Thomas Fitz, and that his miraculous landing was just lucky,

  • then youre probably underestimating the adventurous nature of some people, and what

  • can happen if it comes with a unique skill in a package deal. This excellent pilot and

  • notorious troublemaker did the exact same thing again 2 years later to prove that he

  • still had it! And once again with no harm to anyone. After he proved the point the second

  • time, though, he decided that he wouldn’t fly anymore. Who knows if it was for better

  • or for worse. Some might say that we live in less adventurous

  • times now, but these days, no one will try to land on a road without an extremely good

  • reason. A pilot of a single-engine plane, called Piper Malibu, sure had one such reason

  • when he decided to land on Iron Springs Road in Prescott, AZ. To be sure of his reasoning,

  • you only must take a look at the condition the plane was in at the end of this trip.

  • It was laying upside down, crashed, and missing its wings.

  • But don’t worry; somehow, none of the three people on board were hurt! The plane tried

  • to get to the Prescott Airport, but it was running out of fuel, so it had to find another

  • place to glide to. In the process of landing, one of the plane’s wings crashed into a

  • street light pole. The pilot lost control immediately after, and the Malibu Piper spun

  • around and flipped on its roof. Fortunately, the police were already rushing over since

  • Prescott Airport informed them about a possible accident. Well as the pilots also say: Any

  • landing you can walk away from is a good landing. Anyways, all is well that ends well, though

  • this flight was unfortunate for the poor small plane itself. Still, other pilots were able

  • to not only save themselves from harm, but their aircraft too. One such miracle happened

  • in 2018, in California. Imagine youre going to the beach at the end of the week. Youre

  • stuck in traffic, but you calm yourself down by assuming that this is the worst thing that

  • will happen this day. Then suddenly, a plane rushes right in front of you!

  • This is exactly what happened; a plane landed right in the middle of Huntington Beach. The

  • biggest challenge for the pilot was that the street was webbed in electric cables. One

  • tiny mistake and a whole city block would lose power! The consequences to the plane

  • would be far worse than that, nevermind the people inside. To glide between wires and

  • touch down without hitting any of the cars on the roadthat’s a one-in-a-million

  • landing! But how do pilots do it? Apparently, there’s

  • one secret, and it’s simple, yet not too obvious. The thing is, when landing, a relatively

  • small aircraft slows down to a speed that, on average, is just 20 mph faster than the

  • speed of traffic on a big enough road, like a highway. Most of the time, drivers will

  • have enough time to react and get out of the way, even for the most unexpected guests,

  • like planes. Therefore the cases in which cars getting hit during a landing on the road

  • are quite rare. Pilots won’t ever choose a lane with opposite movementit’s way

  • too dangerous! We all like action movies, and movies about

  • James Bond are among the forever loved classics here. What’s not to like? Almost comically

  • cool characters, sharp plot twists, and of course, unforgettable stunts. Among the most

  • iconic stunts is one with a BD-5J jet flying through a hangar, and then landing near the

  • gas station on the road tofill her up”. One thing you probably didn’t know about

  • this stunt is that it was based on the real-life experience of the stuntman that performs it.

  • One day in 1975, this pilot flew to an insane altitude of 11,500 ft on his way to Washington,

  • D.C., when all of a sudden the jet started to malfunction. There was no oil pressure

  • in the engine! After a rapid descent through the clouds,

  • the pilot saw that things were even worsethere was nothing below him but a dense

  • forest. A small jet wouldn’t survive a crash-landing into the trees. But then he saw a ray of hope

  • – a broad interstate appeared just a few miles away from him.

  • The mastery of his aircraft allowed him to glide towards the road and get in line with

  • it. But as he got closer, there was more trouble. The traffic was busy that day. What else would

  • be the obvious solution for a stuntman, besides landing on the roof of a truck? But instead,

  • he decided to just talk to a driver that passed underneath his jet and ask if he could slow

  • down and clear the road for him. The jet landed on the road and coasted for

  • some time, until it came to the gas station. The staff member that met him was shocked

  • he couldn’t say a word, and was just looking at the pilot, who also couldn’t

  • find his words. Finally, the man at the gas station assumed that it was all a prank, and

  • he was being filmed on a hidden camera. If it was true, it would have been one of the

  • most expensive and difficult pranks in history! It’s a good thing that plane was in the

  • hands of a high-level professional. And it’s mindboggling if you try to think about all

  • the things that couldve gone wrong here. If you had to experience an emergency landing,

  • what place would you choose? A road, or maybe a field? Which one is scarier in your opinion?

  • Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give this video

  • a like and share it with a friend. Buthey! – don’t go jetting off anywhere

  • just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out. All you have to do is pick

  • the left or right video, click on it, and enjoy! Remember: Stay on the Bright Side of

  • life!

Ever since human beings left the safety of the ground and aimed for the sky, there was

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