CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — A pilot said his engine shut off and he had no choice but to land on a Carroll County highway Tuesday afternoon.
As NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene, we could see the plane on the side of the road as cars drove by.
The pilot, Steve Allsop, landed his Beechcraft single-engine airplane safely on Highway 27 in Carroll County, not far from the West Georgia Regional Airport.
Allsop told Channel 2's Tom Regan that he had trained to make this kind of landing and it paid off. He said that he has flown for seven years, racked up a lot experience in that time, but his nerves, and his grace under pressure, have never been truly been tested until now.
“The fuel gauges were incorrect. So, reading what they were reading was not what was in the tanks,” Allsop said.
The pilot said he was en route from South Carolina to Iowa when engine problems started while entering Carroll County.
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He soon realized that he was in serious trouble.
Allsop told Regan that he decided to glide for several miles and then attempted to restart the engine. But it didn’t kick on.
“The engine ran out of fuel because the gauges were reading differently from what was in there,” Allsop said. “So, I had to put it down. So, I landed right on Highway 27. I hit one power line, one communication line. And I rolled off the side of the road."
“That was a heck of a landing,” Regan said.
“Divine intervention. I had God as my co-pilot on my side. God made it possible for me to walk away and no one else was hurt as well,” Allsop said.
A hangar employee took Allsop to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to catch a flight home to Marion, Iowa.
Before he can fly his plane again, the aircraft will undergo an evaluation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Cox Media Group
