A plane has crashed into a car at Aero Country Airport in Texas. Despite there being two passengers in the aircraft and one in the car, no one was seriously hurt in the incident, which occurred on 11 November 2023 at about lunchtime, during an attempted emergency landing at the private airport near McKinney, a city about 32 miles (51 km) north of Dallas.
According to local media, McKinney fire department reported three people requiring treatment on site and one hospitalization for minor injuries but details have not been released about who that was or which of the vehicles they were in.
The small aircraft, an experimental single-engine Lancair IV-P propjet is reported to have suffered pressurization issues and made a rapid descent and aborted one landing before trying again. The second time saw the plane overshoot the runway, crash through a fence, cross lanes of traffic on the Eastbound Virginia Parkway and hit the car. The whole thing was caught on camera by TikTokker, Jack Schneider, whose video has been viewed millions of times.
@jackschneider17 Airplane is a turboprop LX7. Thankfully everyone was ok! Repost with credit. #aviation #airplane #crash ♬ original sound – Jack Schneider
Smoke can be seen escaping from the plane before the crash, as well as debris afterwards and the actions of emergency services. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
One onlooker, Carlos Wiggins, summed up how shocking witnessing a plane crash can be, telling press: “Everybody stopped. Everybody. All the cars stopped – like 15 feet, stopped.
“[My] mind went blank. I think everybody’s mind went blank.”
Meanwhile Schneider told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth: “I was on the other side of the jet, closest to the runway, and all of a sudden, I hear that an airplane is landing.
“I looked over and saw a bunch of smoke coming off the tires. And I could tell that he was going way too fast to stop by the end of the runway.
“He went through the fence and then went onto the road, and then crossed one lane of traffic and then into the other lane of traffic right as another car hit it.”
A number of recent near-misses have occurred in the American aviation sector, most taking place around take-off or landing with pilots misunderstanding air traffic control instructions and planes overflying each other or attempting to use the same runway. The tally has been so bad in fact, it has highlighted how beleaguered workers are and the knock-on effect of staff shortages on crew and passenger safety, with a sector summit called earlier this year to address concerns.
