Tue, Sep 12, 2006
This Is A Happy Story, Really
A sight-seeing flight in Montreal, Quebec turned into an amazing
sight to behold as a Cessna 172 made a successful landing on a
major city thoroughfare to the delighted amazement of hundreds of
park visitors enjoying their Sunday afternoon.
The plane was flying around Mount Royal which is also a large
park in the center of the city, when the engine failed. Pilot Gian
Piero Ciambella, who was flying a father and his son on the tour,
quickly transformed himself into a glider pilot and declared an
emergency with the controllers he was already talking to. They no
doubt wished him good luck and Ciambello found Park Boulevard,
which is one of the major North-South arteries, stretched out
directly in front of the now very still propeller.
The Montreal Gazette reported that as the plane coasted to a
stop along Park, following a perfect landing, crowds of people -
many from the weekly tam tam drumming get-together - ran after it,
swarming alongside it, laughing, cheering and snapping pictures
with cameras and cellphones. The Gazette continued that moments
before the plane touched down, Glenn McCavour and girlfriend
Melanie Bregman were on their way to the park, waiting to cross the
street. "As I went to cross (Park), Melanie grabbed my hand to stop
me," McCavour recalled. "One car went by in front of me, then
another. But the third car wasn't a car: it was an airplane."
A major cross street had a red light, thus preventing any
traffic incursion onto the temporary runway. Park Street was closed
for four hours until the plane could be removed.
Apart from one snapped street sign and a slightly dented Skyhawk
left wing, there was no damage, and not one of the hundreds of
witnesses on this bucolic Sunday afternoon was hurt.
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