Dashcam captures small plane emergency landing on Florida interstate

A dashboard camera captured a small plane skimming low over Interstate 10 in Pensacola before touching down in the eastbound lanes near mile marker 14, just under roadside signage, after a mechanical issue forced an emergency landing. Truck driver Eric Jordan recorded the video as the plane came in around 9:55 a.m. between Davis Highway and Scenic Highway.

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office said a pilot and flight student were aboard and reported the mechanical problem that sent the aircraft down onto the interstate. No injuries were reported, and the Florida Highway Patrol said no other vehicles were involved, turning what could have been a far more serious highway disaster into a close call with a narrow outcome.

The scene put a sharp public-safety spotlight on a recurring aviation problem: when a small aircraft loses the ability to keep flying, a roadway can become the only usable strip of pavement left. The National Transportation Safety Board keeps a civil aviation accident and incident database that covers cases from 1962 to the present in the United States, its territories and possessions, and international waters, a record that includes emergency and off-airport landings like the one in Pensacola. That framework is part of how investigators and aviation regulators review mechanical failures, pilot decisions and the hazards created when aircraft and interstate traffic meet in the same space.