‘The pilot did a lot of things right’: J-P Dice weighs in after plane makes emergency landing

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - A small plane made an emergency landing Tuesday night near the Birmingham airport.

Thankfully no one was injured, and Birmingham Fire and Rescue says the pilot did an outstanding job landing the plane.

The first responder says the pilot was training a student, and as they began to approach the runway, the engine went out.

WBRC Meteorologist and pilot J-P Dice says the off-field landing was the best option.

“A lot of things are happening very quickly”, says Dice. “In that case, in the mind of the pilot you think, OK, I’ve got an issue with this airplane. I can’t make it back to the airport. What am I going to do?”

Dice says the pilot did a great job avoiding any injuries on board or the ground.

“From the pictures, very minimal damage to the airplane as it did touchdown,” says Dice. “The pilot did a lot of things right on the money on that. I noticed the flaps were down full to enable the airplane to touch down at a very slow speed. What you want to do is if you’re in one of these situations is to land that airplane as slow as possible.”

Officials say the plane was a Piper Warrior, used to train new pilots. Dice owns one and says the aircraft is excellent, but handling such situations at night is more complicated.

“These airplanes, even if they lose power, they glide quite well. The problem is at night, you can’t see the landing area. You can’t see whether I’m landing on a road or a field. It’s hard to discern that at night. So you really have a lot more challenges when you have an issue like that at night versus the daytime,” adds Dice.

J-P says this is something pilots train for, but it is a situation they experience only sometimes.

“I’ve been flying a good bit, and I can tell you I’ve never experienced anything like that. Nobody wants to be in a situation where they’re experiencing an off-field landing. You practice for those types of things,” says Dice. “Hopefully, the student takes away what they learned, but it’s not an experience we would ever want to have happen.”

Birmingham Fire and Rescue says the plane had about 45 gallons of fuel left, and there was no fire during the landing.

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