April 5th, 2012
09:40 PM ET

Gotta Watch: Emergency plane landings

The U.S has entered an unprecedented era of safer skies, according to industry experts, but not every plane landing has been perfect.

On Monday, 2,000 feet above the ground in Wisconsin, an 80-year old woman was forced to land a twin-engine Cessna after her pilot husband lost consciouness. You've "gotta watch" how this gutsy grandmother landed the plane.

Her successful landing reminds us of other daring attempts pilots have made during emergency landing situations. Watch how commercial pilots recently landed their impaired planes in Arizona, New York and Poland.

Elderly passenger lands plane

On Monday, 80-year-old Helen Collins was able to successfully land a twin-engine airplane after her pilot husband fell unconscious at the controls. She landed at Wisconsin's Door County Cherryland Airport. Her husband John died from injuries unrelated to the landing.

US Airways jet crash lands

In January 2009, a US Airways jetliner with 155 people aboard lost power in both engines shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport. The pilot, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger safely put the plane down in the Hudson River. All passengers and crew survived the splash landing.

Hole forces a Boeing 737 to land

Back in April 2011, a Southwest Airlines plane with a gaping hole in the fuselage made an emergency landing at the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma with 118 passengers on board. No one was injured.

Emergency landing in Poland

Last year, the pilots of a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 couldn't get the landing gear to come down, making the final moments of the flight from Newark to Warsaw a bit frightening for the 210 passengers and 11 crew members on board.

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Filed under: Air travel • Arizona • Gotta Watch • New York • Plane emergency landing • Transportation • Travel • Wisconsin
soundoff (34 Responses)
  1. patiat

    That's not irony. It's coincidence. What would be the point of taking the article down?

    April 6, 2012 at 1:49 pm | Report abuse |
    • Jay

      IIts ironic because what happened in Virginia is the exact opposite of a safe emergency landing. The article's first line is "The U.S. has entered an unprecedented era of safer skies." Tell me that's not irony.

      They should take it down because its the equivalent of posting an article on 9/12/01 on how much TSA has improved over the years.

      Even though it might generally be true, its just not in tune with today's top story.

      April 6, 2012 at 2:12 pm | Report abuse |
  2. FU

    30 sec embedded video per video?? No thanks CNN...

    April 6, 2012 at 3:50 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Tmonkey

    Says a "twin engine" plane, picture is a single engine

    April 6, 2012 at 6:05 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Chesley

    Captain Sullenburger would b very proud of u! My sympathy for the loss of your husband:(

    April 7, 2012 at 6:20 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Rogue351

    Maybe if the rich put more money into maintaining companies and paying employees enough to support a family and retire before they die on the job people would do a better job. Or maybe if rich executives didn't out source parts to third world countries so they could put more money in their own pockets things like this would not happen. The Republican party, the party of the rich. The party of the gun toting tea party. The party the KKK calls home will be the down fall of the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

    April 16, 2012 at 11:56 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Darren Ball

    Im Darren and i like my face :p

    February 28, 2013 at 12:32 pm | Report abuse |
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