Plane Hits SUV: Video Captures Small Plane Hitting SUV In Texas


Home video of a small airplane hitting an SUV has revealed a serious safety concern on a roadway near an airport in north Texas.

According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, the collision took place around on Saturday (November 3) morning when the plane, a 2005 Cessna Sky Hawk, was attempting to land at Northwest Regional Airport in Roanoke, Texas.

Lonny Haschel, Department of Public Safety spokesman, said that at about 10:50 am the SUV turned left from Cleveland Gibbs Road onto Kelly Drive, the airport perimeter road, and the plane’s landing gear struck the vehicle’s roof.

“The aircraft continued to the runway, where he slid off and came to rest in a grassy area.”

Gadling.com reports a private road crosses the north end of the landing strip and the only warning (of potentially being hit by an oncoming plane) to drivers is a faded “STOP” painted on the asphalt.

“When cars cross that area they are supposed to stop and wait for any airplanes,” Deputy Chief Gilbert Caldwell of the Roanoke Fire Department told The Dallas Morning News. “Either the plane didn’t see the car or the car didn’t see the plane.”

In the video of the incident, you can see the plane coming in, when just seconds before it crosses a road, a black SUV drives underneath it, causing the plane to nearly peel off the SUV’s roof.

Despite the severity of the crash, the Department of Public Safety says the couple in the SUV, identified as Frank and Heather Laudo, suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident at Northwest Regional Airport.

The pilot, 43-year-old William Davis of Flower Mound, also escaped unharmed.

After the incident, Davis told CBS11 News that, while he’s grateful everyone is okay, he is now unsure if he will ever fly again.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. Amazingly, this is the fourth incident involving a plane at Roanoke Airport in the past two months.

News 8 has more on the Plane-SUV collision, including raw footage of the incident, in the video below:

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