Plane Takes Off From Highway It Made Emergency Landing On

WEST BROWARD (CBSMiami) – A vintage cargo plane that had to make an emergency landing on an isolated part of U.S. 27 had the road cleared for it Wednesday as the plane used the road as a makeshift runway to take off.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday an instructor and his student pilot were forced to bring the plane, a 1959 Beechcraft 18, down on the road after it lost both of its engines during a test flight. No one was hurt in the accident.

Ironically, the two people aboard the plane, Stuart Hanley of Hollywood and Ronald Russell of Auburn, Maine, were practicing what do if an engine stalled. The instructor killed one of the engines as part of the test, but, for whatever reason, the second engine quit and wouldn't restart.

Since there was no way the plane could make it back to Executive Airport on its own power, Hanley and Russell made an emergency landing on the highway. It was allowed to take off from the same stretch of highway on Wednesday.

The FAA is still working on a report about the incident.