A student’s very first flying lesson took an extraordinary turn on the morning of August 3rd when the Piper PA-28 Cherokee he was aboard began losing oil pressure roughly 30 minutes after departing Pensacola International Airport. The instructor in the left seat, 21-year-old Emily Shelton, had logged around 1,300 hours of flight time. She was about to need every one of them.
Shelton had been flying the Pensacola Air Flight School aircraft north toward the Alabama state line when the cockpit began filling with the smell of burning oil. She radioed air traffic control with a measured update: “We’re gonna keep it high for now, but we do have a burning oil smell in the cockpit.” The situation deteriorated quickly. Within minutes she was back on frequency: “Yeah, our oil pressure is dropping down into the red, and we do have fumes in the cockpit from the oil.”
With the engine failing and Pensacola International no longer within reach, she made the call. “We are not making the airport, we are going down on I-10. We are lined up with I-10 trying to avoid the cars.” ATC responded with the only advice they could muster: “Roger. It’s at your discretion, safe spot as possible. We’ll get the vehicles out for you.”
Threading a Highway Sign at 60 MPH
What followed was captured on the dashcam of truck driver Eric Jordan, who was heading eastbound on I-10 near mile marker 14 when the Piper appeared in his field of view. The plane descended low enough to pass beneath an overhead highway sign structure before touching down on the eastbound lanes. Jordan said he only avoided a direct collision because he caught the plane’s shadow passing over his cab and braked in time. “If I hadn’t seen a shadow over my truck and slowed down, he would have been on the inside of the cab. I just couldn’t believe it was happening.” He later added: “It was a miracle they landed that thing with no problem.”…