[billorites]

Landing flabbergasts eyewitnesses

'Not every day when traffic coming at you is a plane.'

By LAURA STEELE
Tribune Staff Writer

See related story and photo:

Roger, 933 is clear for landing

933 landing

ROSELAND -- Bea Tomkiewicz's afternoon took a divergent path Tuesday when an outbound plane made an emergency landing on Indiana 933, right next to her Lincoln Town Car.

"I noticed the plane was very low. I was headed south and thought it was going way too low," she said, hands clutched around a plastic Diet Coke bottle and still shaking from her close encounter hours earlier. "I saw it teeter to the right and then I knew it was going to crash."

Tomkiewicz had planned on attending a 1:40 p.m. doctor's appointment downtown, but instead spent the afternoon speaking with officials in Room 311 of the Howard Johnson Inn in Roseland about what she witnessed.

Firsthand accounts from motorists, hotel guests and restaurant patrons told how the plane miraculously found a clear path on the busy five-lane road.

Greg Frankhauser, who was driving south, watched the plane land about a half-block ahead of him.

"It's not every day when the traffic coming at you is a plane," said Frankhauser, the operations manager for Ampco System Parking.

About 10 to 15 other vehicles were going south, and six to eight others were going north. The vehicles in front of him "stopped and scattered," he said.

The plane landed with its nose pointing north with just a little bit of an angle west, he said. It wasn't in the middle of the road, but against the curb on the east side.

Frankhauser talked to the pilot and co-pilot afterward and congratulated them. The plane apparently only clipped a power line pole, which resulted in wing damage.

"He dropped it down in an area that was just full of light poles, electric poles and business," Frankhauser added.

A traffic light near the landing scene must have just changed, he guessed, "because there was a gap between the vehicles. There was an open spot," he said.

That's where the pilot landed the plane.

"They call that a good landing," said Bob McDowell, who had just pulled into Pizza King, where he had planned to eat lunch with his son, Reid. "The timing had to be just about perfect."

The plane stopped just short of Pizza King's sign, with the marquee greeting: "Welcome to Snyderville" -- a reference to the town of Roseland's two married council members.

"You don't land on an active highway and expect not to hit something," McDowell said. "Those guys should be dead."

Nancy Younkin said she saw the plane "taxi" down 933 as she watched from inside Wendy's through its large windows.

"It was amazing," she said. The pilot "did a good job."

Afterward, the passengers were calm and cool in departing the aircraft.

"It was kind of strange, because they dropped the stepladder and disembarked just like that," Frankhauser said.

Staff writer Matthew Galbraith contributed to this report.

[reagan_fanatic]

Oh my GOD...

[el_texicano]

"The co-pilot has not yet been identified."

Probably still cleaning out his shorts.

[G.Mason]

There are five who are going to have a very Merry Christmas.

WHEW!

[Joe Hadenuf]

Luck pilot, lucky passengers, lucky for those on the ground.

[Aeronaut]

[GoredInMich]

http://www.405themovie.com/

Check this out.........

sorry..I suck at links

[lilylangtree]

Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock , 6 miles!"

Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"

---

"TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."

"Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"

"Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

---

A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?"

Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."

---

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.

San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

---

There's a story about the military pilot calling for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked."

Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down.

"Ah," the fighter pilot remarked, "The dreaded seven-engine approach."

---

Taxiing down the tarmac, a DC-10 abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After an hour-long wait, it finally took off. A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What, exactly, was the problem?"

"The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine," explained the flight attendant.

"It took us a while to find a new pilot."

---

A Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following:

Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"

Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."

Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?"

Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent):

"Because you lost the bloody war."

---

One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee.

Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"

The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger:

"I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for another one."

[RightWhale]

That's a big airplane.

[Dashing Dasher]

Holy Tin Can, Batman!

[banjo joe]

a hatch door

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