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Amazing Rescue Caught on Tape after Plane's Landing Gear Fails

Monday, September 19, 2005

ABC News' Ron Corning

(Smyrna Beach, FL - WABC, September 19, 2005) -- It looked like some kind of a stunt out of an action movie, but it was the real thing. ABC's Ron Corning has the story of a memorable rescue.

It was a routine flying lesson for pilot instructor Jason Messenger and his student. They were practicing emergency landing gear procedures, but when the plane's landing gear failed to lock into place the practice session became the real thing.

See the Images from the Scene

Jason Messenger: "We didn't know what was causing the gear to not extend, so we just followed our checklists..."

The pilot radioed in his problem and then made several low passes over the New Smyrna Beach Airport so that crews on the ground could see the gear and come up with a plan --and what a plan they came up with!

Danny Perna, Airport Worker: "I had heard it being done one time before and it seemed like a logical step to do at the time."

In a scene worthy of a Hollywood action movie, Perna and two other airport workers grabbed a Jeep. At sixty-five miles per hour they raced down the runway under the crippled Cessna, avoiding the deadly propeller.

Standing in the back of the speeding Jeep, Jeremy Webster would try to pull the wheel into place. SOT Jeremy Webster I was just more focused on hooking that gear and getting it down and locked.

After two tries Webster borrowed a pole from firefighters who'd been called to the scene and tried again--but the third time wasn't the charm. Finally, on the fourth pass, success.

Jason Messenger: " I was in the right seat so I could look out the window and see them working on it, and we heard it click when they got it down."

The FAA plans to investigate the landing to determine if any regulations were violated by the "highly unusual" maneuver, but pilot and student are grateful to be on the ground safely.

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