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Every pilot’s worst nightmare is needing to make an emergency landing. Any mechanical failure can put their lives in serious danger, and the landing itself is also incredibly dangerous. After all, pilots rarely have the space they need to make a safe, smooth landing. One pilot found that out firsthand this weekend in northwest Houston.

At around 11 a.m. on Sunday, a pilot flying a small plane experienced a loss of power. Needing to land his plane, he looked for the safest place to do so. He found it on State Highway 99, also known as the Grand Parkway. The pilot descended over the parkway near Tomball and made a pretty impressive landing on the highway. However, it wasn’t without a big scare.

Emergency Landing Clips Semi-Truck

The pilot was able to successfully land his plane while flying with northbound traffic. However, he did clip a semi-truck’s roof on his way down. This certainly gave the trucker a big scare, but luckily, the trucker sustained no injuries. Hopefully he has good insurance coverage!

After clipping the semi-truck, the plane landed and struck a concrete median barrier on the highway. It then caught fire. The flames were allegedly quite large, as drivers could see black smoke billowing up from a ways away. Miraculously, the pilot was able to escape his downed plane. He walked away with no injuries, an incredible outcome given the circumstances.

The plane was a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza M35. It had no passengers, just the pilot. The man was on a surveying assignment. He had left West Houston Airport on the assignment, but things quickly went haywire.

Multiple federal agencies are investigating this crash. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration will both compile reports on the incident. Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is: what went wrong?