Cessna clips pickup truck during emergency landing in North Fort Myers

A small Cessna making an emergency landing on a busy road in North Fort Myers, Florida, struck the back of a moving pickup truck on Saturday, Nov. 7, and no one aboard the plane or on the ground was hurt.

Two pilots were aboard when a mechanical issue forced them to attempt the landing near Bayshore Road and Interstate 75 at around noon, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said. The plane struck the rear of a pickup that was traveling east. The Federal Aviation Administration is leading the investigation.

What the sheriff's office said

Deputies reported no injuries at the scene, on the plane or on the road. The sheriff's office posted on the day of the landing that it was responding to an aircraft crash near Bayshore Road and I-75, and that the two pilots had experienced a mechanical issue. Emergency crews, including fire rescue units and the Florida Department of Transportation, arrived to manage traffic and secure the area.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno credited patrol deputies, FDOT Southwest Florida and Bayshore Fire Rescue with the speed of the response to the scene.

Marceno said in a statement that his office would continue working with its partners at the FAA as the agency reviews the circumstances of the incident. The FAA is assuming the investigation, and the same statement referred to recent aviation accidents.

A Learjet 60 crashed beside a road in Palm Beach County on Nov. 1, killing all nine people aboard. Federal investigators are working to determine what caused that crash, The Associated Press reported.

Given the recent tragic news involving aviation accidents, we are especially grateful that everyone is safe.

Investigators have not publicly named the two pilots who were flying the Cessna, or the driver of the pickup they struck, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay.

What the video shows

Brandon Hinson was driving a truck and trailer on the same road and watched the plane come down at an angle with its nose low, he told WGCU. The aircraft hit the far left lane, bounced into the middle lane and then slid into the turn lane, he said.

It landed probably 20 maybe 30 feet behind the truck and trailer I was driving.

Video taken from the road shows the plane's wheels touching the asphalt as it speeds along Bayshore Road, its wing clipping the rear of the pickup traveling in the same direction, Fox News reported. The truck was heading east when the aircraft struck it.

Dashcam footage recorded from inside a moving vehicle shows the aircraft dropping onto the road and moving between cars before it comes to a stop. Other traffic keeps moving around the plane.

Surrounding roads were closed for a few hours, WFLA reported.

Photographs released by the sheriff's office show responders standing beside the plane where it came to rest, partly on the grass next to Bayshore Road.

The flight from Sebring

The plane left Sebring, Florida, at about 11 a.m. and came down roughly 50 minutes later, at 11:50 a.m., according to FlightAware tracking data cited by Fox News. The sheriff's office described the landing as happening at around noon

The aircraft was a Cessna 172D Skyhawk, FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported, and its registration, N2905U, is visible in video of the landing and in the photographs released afterward.

The FAA has not released the nature of the mechanical failure, CBS12 reported. The sheriff's office said only that the pilots experienced a mechanical issue and attempted an emergency landing. Neither has described the damage to the plane or to the pickup.

No account from the sheriff's office or the FAA has said where the flight was headed when the pilots reported trouble.

The Learjet crash in Greenacres

A Learjet 60 carrying nine people nose-dived into a South Florida neighborhood on Sunday, Nov. 1, and erupted into a fireball that appeared to just miss homes near a busy Palm Beach County roadway, The Associated Press reported. Everyone on board was killed. Video recorded by people inside their cars captured the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunging from the sky before it struck near the roadway and exploded.

What the Learjet pilots reported

The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the FAA. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for the Austin airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. It was flying east at 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb another 2,000 feet.

Minutes before the crash, the pilot told controllers that ice was accumulating on the jet and that turbulence was jolting it by as much as 700 feet. The plane then entered a steep dive, first at 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding it beyond its design limits. A pilot declared an emergency before the aircraft banked sharply to the right and smashed into the ground.

It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.

DeSantis, who spoke to reporters at the scene, said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being injured or killed. Palm Beach County authorities evacuated about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community. Rain pounded the region that day, and a flood watch was in effect through Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

Greenacres, where the jet came down, is a city of 45,000 people about 7 miles southwest of West Palm Beach. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater and thick black smoke engulfed the site, with onlookers saying the jet had come down only feet from homes.

Where the investigations stand

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the inquiry into the Learjet crash, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA was sending a team to support it. Steve Arroyo, an aviation safety expert quoted by The Associated Press, said icing and turbulence could have been factors and may have caused the plane to stall at cruising altitude.

The FAA is the lead agency on Saturday's landing in North Fort Myers, having taken the investigation over from the sheriff's office at the scene. No findings have been released, and no timetable for the review has been announced.