A small plane had an engine failure shortly after takeoff; He attempted an emergency landing but crashed into the ground.
The crash happened around 2:40 p.m. Thursday at Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport in Illinois, United States.
Here is video of a plane crash landing shortly after takeoff at Atlanta’s DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. Two people on board are moderately injured. pic.twitter.com/d3dJUR51U3
— Chad Baker (@ChadBlue83) February 16, 2023
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the vehicle was a single-engine Piper PA28 operated in a teaching environment.
In a video shared on Twitter, the plane can be seen taking off, making a sharp turn and then crash-landing on its return.
“It’s very difficult to survive incidents like this when they happen so close to the ground,” said Hampton McDonald, a certified flight instructor.
“The turn made is referred to in aviation as an impossible turn, meaning that pilots who lose an engine very soon after takeoff and then attempt to return to the runway have a very poor success rate of performing that maneuver and exiting it,” he added.
According to DeKalb County authorities, there were two people on board at the time, a flight instructor and a student.
Both were taken to a nearby hospital with moderate injuries.
“It looked like he was trying to turn around to find a soft landing and lost control of the plane in the process,” a witness said.
The FAA says the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation.