Plane Narrowly Avoids Hitting Postal Van During Emergency Landing

A postal carrier in Gifford, Illinois, got the surprise of her life when a small yellow airplane narrowly missed colliding with her van shortly before landing on the road. WCIA reports that the plane made an emergency landing on U.S. 136 near the Gordyville USA entertainment venue the morning of Sunday, September 20. It not only barely avoided the mail van, but also some semi-trucks that pulled over to avoid a crash. No crashes occurred, and no one was hurt.

Witnesses described what they saw to WCIA:

"I just heard three screeches, kind of like you would hear at an airport or somewhere like that, or maybe somebody hitting the brakes real hard, and then looked over to see what was happening. And, lo and behold, there was a plane landing," Josh Parrott said. "I saw the wings barely over the mail truck. Came really close landing right on top of the mail truck."

The same noise made Parrott's next door neighbor, Hayden Henderson, run outside to see what was happening.

"If you've ever heard a train going by you, when it was landing on the ground, that's what it sounded like," Henderson said. "It was like, 'Am I seeing what I think that is? Is that really a plane down there?' Never expected that to be what it was in a million years."

A diesel locomotive is much louder than a small plane's idling engine. But Henderson's comment indicates that the engine was still running when he landed on the narrow two-lane road, and this wasn't a case of engine failure.

The pilot did not talk to WCIA, but the Illinois State Police said that the emergency landing was "due to weather." They did not elaborate on exactly what conditions led to the plane landing on a U.S. highway. The security camera footage from Gordyville USA shows a large open field across the road, which might have been a safer choice away from obstructions and traffic, particularly in an older tail-dragger that was made for such landings. But in this case, everything worked out for the best.

The tail number visible in WCIA's coverage corresponds to a 1949 Piper PA-15 Vagabond, according to the FAA. A Piper badge is visible on the front of the plane as well. This was the successor to the famous Piper Cub, with shorter wings to save money on building materials in the post-war economy, according to the Piper Flyer Association. Those shorter wings may have helped this plane avoid striking objects on the side of the road it landed on.

Whatever weather conditions were that caused the pilot to land on a highway, those conditions didn't seem to last. Later in the day, police closed off the road, and the airplane took off, resuming its journey to points unknown. The mail carrier who got an up-close and personal view of the vintage flying machine presumably resumed her route as well. As the unofficial U.S. Postal Service motto says, "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor small planes nearly crashing into them stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," or something like that.