Sheriff says pilot clipped road sign before landing in field along Highway 397
By (WTOK)
MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) – A single-engine plane made an emergency landing along Highway 397 after losing oil pressure, according to Kemper County Sheriff James Moore.
Moore said the plane departed from Mobile, Alabama, en route to a part of Missouri. The aircraft stopped about 20 miles into the trip to get fuel. After returning to altitude, the pilot noticed the oil pressure had begun dropping.
“Once they got back up to the altitude, they realized that they started dropping oil pressure,” Moore said. “So they climbed, and the oil pressure continued to drop, and they had to make an emergency landing here on 397.”
Moore said that as the plane came down onto the highway, the wing clipped a road sign, sending the aircraft into a spin and off the road into a field.
Moore said the incident occurring on the road, rather than elsewhere, likely prevented a collision with oncoming traffic.
“I think you can tell that that probably was a good thing because they didn’t want to have any oncoming traffic while they were in the middle of the road trying to land,” Moore said.
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