Dramatic video shows the moment the pilot of a small plane made a “textbook” emergency landing on just one wheel.
Footage from Tuesday afternoon shows the Cape Air Cessna 402C heading back to Boston’s Logan Airport after detecting a landing gear problem soon after taking off for Maine, WCVB reported.
As the aircraft approached the airport, only the wheel under its left wing was extended — which the pilot managed to land on smoothly. The plane eventually veered to the side without a wheel before skidding to a halt, the footage shows.
The plane’s pilot and two passengers — including a Cape Air trainee — quickly got out, all uninjured.
“It was a textbook landing. He did it exactly right,” aviation expert John Nance told WCVB, emphasizing that the pilot’s training likely saved the day from the rare emergency.
“This isn’t something you want to experience—whether you’re flying a 747, Cessna, or any other airplane,” Nance added.
Commercial pilot Patrick Smith also praised the unidentified pilot’s skill.
“They certainly knew what they were dealing with and what was going to happen,” Smith told WBZ.
“The technique here on to touchdown would be to keep the plane up on the existing landing gear as long as possible. That’s not easy to do and at a certain point, once you run out of speed, the plane is going to drop onto the other side.”
The incident, which left the plane circling the airport for at least an hour, caused arrival delays at Logan Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.