Pilot Makes 'Amazing' Emergency Landing On North Carolina Highway

SWAIN COUNTY, NC — Drivers on Highway 74 in Swain County, North Carolina, received an odd surprise when a single-engine plane made an emergency landing alongside them on July 3.

The plane's engine had failed multiple times, and pilot Vincent Fraser had no other option than to make the landing on the highway with cars passing him in both directions, he told CNN's "New Day" on Monday.

The precarious landing could have been "catastrophic," but Fraser did an "amazing" job, the Swain County Sheriff's Office said in a post on social media. GoPro video of the landing posted to the agency's Facebook page shows the plane avoiding power lines as it makes a landing in the middle of the highway with traffic flowing on both sides.

Fraser was flying with his father-in-law in an Aero Commander 100 single-engine plane in western North Carolina when his engine first failed over Fortuna Lake. His first thought was that he needed to keep both his father-in-law and people on the ground safe, he said.

Fraser initially didn't see any roads to land on and thought his "only and best chance" was to land on a bridge a distance away. When it was clear he wasn't going to make it to the bridge, his next thought was to attempt a water landing. That's when the highway came into view after it was previously obscured from Fraser by the trees and mountainous terrain.

He turned to the highway and made the safe landing as cars made way for the plane.

"They had to have been so terrified," Fraser said.

After a mechanic checked the plane out, it was towed to a higher highway with a longer stretch of straightaway. Fraser took off three days after the emergency landing.