A small plane made an emergency landing in the southbound lanes of I-65 in Jackson County late Saturday morning.
It was a sight drivers on Interstate 65 never expected to see as 44-year-old pilot Aaron Wright of Carmel made the emergency landing in his single engine plane right on the highway near Seymour, using the lanes like a runway before coasting into the median. Wright, his wife and 13-year-old son were flying from Carmel to Louisville for the teen's hockey game when the plane started to have mechanical difficulties, according to investigators.
No one in the plane or on the ground was injured, according to state police.
Wright turned the plane around when he first noticed the mechanical problems, in hopes of landing at the Seymour airport. When he realized they weren't going to make it that far, he was forced to land the plane on the highway around 11:30 a.m.
Eyewitness News talked on the phone with Wright Saturday night, who said he's thankful his family is ok. Wright also wanted to thank everyone who checked on them for their concern and support.
Some of those people were passing motorists who watched Wright land the plane - a sight one couple who recorded it on their cell phone said they won't soon forget.
"Oh my gosh, this is fricken crazy," you can hear a man say on the video. At first, it's not clear what the man is talking about until the video shows a small plane sitting in the median of the highway.
That man speaking on the video was Steve Haske, who was driving with his wife Theresa to Alabama from Michigan when they witnessed something they had never seen before - and might not ever again.
"This airplane just crashed right in the median, just dropped right out of the sky," you hear Steve Haske say on the video.
"He dropped down and I was kind of waiting for it to come back up," Steve Haske later told Eyewitness News in a phone interview.
"And I'm like, I said, 'I think he crashed.' But we didn't see any dust or smoke or debris so we weren't sure until we got closer and then, sure enough, we saw him setting in between the two highways," recalled Haske, who said they saw people outside hugging.
"I give the pilot a lot of credit, because it could have been just a horrific accident if he would not have been as skilled as he was," said Theresa Haske.
The Haske family couldn't contain their amazement on the video in the moments after as they got closer to the plane and the people who were just inside of it.
"That was an amazing landing that he did. You can see his tracks, his wheel marks," said Steve Haske.
"We just really give him kudos for doing such a great job in that landing, and you just don't see things like that every day and we're thankful that no one was hurt," added Theresa.
As they continued to pass the unbelievable sight, the couple from Michigan wanted the pilot to know how they felt about what they just witnessed.
"Nice Job," you can hear the Haskes shout to the people standing by the plane as they pass by it.
Since Wright immediately maneuvered the plane into the median, not only was no one hurt, traffic never even stopped on I-65, though it did slow down for several hours.
Indiana State Police say The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating what happened.
