An 18-year-old pilot remained calm, cool, and collected when he was forced to make an emergency landing on Route 66 after the engine failed in his small plane.
Brock Peters was flying his grandmother and cousins from Apple Valley to Riverside Municipal Airport in California for breakfast on Monday morning. Around 15 minutes into the flight, while flying over the Cajon Pass, the young pilot said he heard a “boom” from the engine.
“At that point I’m like, OK, that’s not good,” Peters told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m doing the emergency checklist to get the engine restarted but nothing happened. I was already below the mountain range so I couldn’t contact the Ontario tower.”
Peters recalled there were a few options to land the plane, saying that nearby fields were rocky and landing in the trees was not feasible. He then saw the historic Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, figuring it would give him the best chance to land safely.
“I just remembered all my training from my instructors,” Peters told NBC Los Angeles. “I know everybody was a little shocked. My grandma was crying, but I’m like, I’ve got to tune her out, land the plane and deal with this.”
Peters said there was a car approximately 150 feet ahead of him, but it pulled over to the side of the road when the Piper PA-28 touched down safely. He then parked the plane on the side of the road on Cajon Boulevard near Matthews Ranch Road and called 911.
No one was reported to be injured.
Peters, who received his pilot license in September, says he plans to continue flying, despite the recent frightening experience.
“I’m going to keep flying. This is my passion,” he told the Times. “This gives me a little more confidence in those kinds of situations, like I’ve done it before.”
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