Brazil plane crash horror as pilot makes brutal emergency landing on busy motorway

A pilot made an on a between moving cars and lorries after suffering engine failure shortly after taking off.

The light aircraft got into difficulties and was forced to take extreme measures in the skies over and motorists filmed the moment it came down on the road, with many fearing it was going to cause a serious crash. Incredibly, the pilot managed to dodge nearby power lines and the moving cars as it touched down safely on the tarmac, without anyone being injured. The pilot was later named as 29-year-old Mateus Renan Calado while his passenger was businessman Valdemiro Jose Minella, 71, who owns the plane.

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Police confirmed both were uninjured in the incident which happened after the plane left a nearby aerodrome in Gauramirim in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina at around midday on Saturday. The single-engine Pelican 500 BR reportedly suffered engine failure above the BR-1010 in nearby Garuva.

As a result it was forced to make its emergency landing on the packed highway as emergency response vehicles raced to the scene. A female passenger in a car travelling behind the aircraft could be overhead shouting: “It’s going to come down on the top of the lorry, it’s going to crash."

At one point it looked as if it was going to land on a grass verge beside the busy road, before coming down just in front of a tanker and appearing to come dangerously close to hitting the central reservation. The vehicle it came down in front of was forced break sharply to avoid a collision but its driver also survived unscathed.

The woman overheard shouting there was going to be a crash seconds earlier and the man driving the car reacted by yelling: “My God, how amazing! How lucky!” as they neared the plane while it came to a halt on the hard shoulder.

Once the small plane had come to a safe stop it was pushed off the road for the safety of drivers. Later, its wings were removed and it was placed on to a truck so it could be moved.

Mr Minella told the plane was last inspected at the start of the year. It has been only been in the air seven hours since then, including its short flight on Saturday.

The plane was towed away around 5pm local time yesterday before the motorway was fully re-opened. The Brazilian Air Force has confirmed it is to investigate the incident. They said in a statement: “The conclusion of this investigation will occur as soon as possible, always depending on the complexity of the occurrence and, also, the need to discover possible contributing factors."

Several people passed comment on the incident with one social media user saying: “That was some fancy flying.” Another wrote: “Buy that guy a beer. That’s some incredible piloting there.”

Another added: "Had to pass under power lines to land! Huge kudos to the truck driver who stayed with the aircraft to protect it."