A private pilot said he had “no choice” but to land his single-engine aircraft in the westbound lanes of Interstate 595 during Thursday morning’s rush hour.
“I ran out of fuel,” said Scott Allen Richmond, 58, of Comstock Park, Mich.
Richmond avoided all the cars and trucks on the interstate but one: a Honda Accord driven by Daniel Wagner, 64, of Weston, who was on his way home after taking a friend to the airport.
“All of a sudden it felt like the earth shook open,” said Wagner, a retired executive with a manufacturing firm. “He hit me so hard on the roof, and the propeller blades cut into [but not through] the roof.”
Wagner said he’d never been in a crash, let alone survived a near-death experience.
“This is my first, and what an accident to have,” said Wagner, who was stiff and sore but otherwise unhurt.
Richmond, who also was not injured, said he had flown from Easley, S.C., and had been cleared to land at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, but his landing was delayed.
He had been flying solo in his 1963 Piper PA-24 Comanche that came to rest near the off ramp for Exit 1, Southwest 136th Avenue, at 8:45 a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
Marlene and George Janetos noticed the white plane with navy and maroon stripes as it passed over their Plantation home on the north side of the interstate, near South Hiatus Road and Cleary Boulevard.
“We could hear the sputtering of an engine as the plane came from the north to the south,” Marlene Janetos said. “We never see that landing pattern. They usually fly parallel to I-595.”
The couple worried as the plane flew farther south and they lost sight of it. Their fears were justified.
“She sputtered and quit,” Richmond said of his engine.
As he realized his four fuel tanks weren’t feeding his engine and he would have end his flight away from an airport, Richmond said he prayed and thought of his 12-year-old twin girls.
He called landing on the highway “the obvious choice. You always pick out pavement whenever possible as opposed to turf, and then you try to pick the widest stretch of pavement that you can.”
Richmond said he also was making sure he wouldn’t strike power lines or highway signs and wanted to alert drivers to his presence as he glided quietly above them, without engine power.
But Wagner never saw the Piper until there was “an incredible hit to the roof of my car,” and the plane appeared in front of his windshield.
“It was amazing that he kept control of the plane, and amazing that I could keep control of the car,” Wagner said.
After impact, the Honda and plane both slowed for another 100 yards.
“It was scary after I got out,” Wagner said. “It’s just a shocking experience that I’m alive and he’s alive. I think it was a miracle for a lot of people out there today.”
Wagner waited on the interstate for several hours until two investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived to interview him and the pilot.
At one point, Richmond rested inside the Honda and the survivors of the stunning crash talked awhile.
“One of the patrolmen told me to take the number of the plane and go buy lottery tickets,” said Wagner.
While Road Rangers and troopers figured out how to move the aircraft off the interstate, Richmond stretched out on a wing and took a nap.
The pilot said he’s flown for “about six years” and had spent 22 hours in the “awesome plane” he bought two weeks ago. It was towed from the highway in the early afternoon.
He was coming to South Florida for his marine industry business.
“I’m so grateful [that I’m safe],” Richmond said. “My greatest fear is taking out an innocent person and living through it.”
Davie Police and Davie Fire Rescue also responded to the scene on the interstate, which had not previously served as a runway.
“I think this is the first [plane that landed] on 595,” Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky said. “We’ve had them on U.S. 27, I-75, the Alligator Alley area, Sawgrass Expressway…mostly out west.”
The results of the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation may not be released for several weeks.
“We have to figure out exactly what happened,” said Erik Lee, one of the FAA’s experts at the scene. “Nobody was hurt. That’s a very good outcome. It was a good day, for a bad thing that happened.”
Drivers delayed for hours on I-595 may not have cared, and they let the pilot know with blaring horns.
“Everybody is taking videos and I had one guy go by and he says, ‘Learn to fly!'” Richmond said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Staff Writer Wayne K. Roustan and Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. Ltrischitta@Tribune.com, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta
