This image provided by Gainesville Police Department shows a small plane that made an emergency landing on a street in Gainesville, Ga., Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (Gainesville, Ga., Police Department via AP)
A single-engine plane made an emergency landing on a busy road in Georgia. The landing ended with three vehicles hit, leaving two people with minor injuries, authorities said.
The Hawker Beechcraft Bonanza landed Monday on Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville. That’s about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. It was headed to Cherokee County Regional Airport in Canton from Gainesville’s Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport. The plane turned back after experiencing problems with the engine just after departure, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement. According to the NTSB, the plane didn’t have enough power to reach the airport. So, it landed on the road.
During the emergency, one of the two pilots on board told air traffic controllers to let his wife and parents know he loved them, per the Associated Press.
“I think we’re not going to make it,” air traffic audio recorded by LiveATC.net said. “Please tell my wife, Molly, I love her, and my parents. I love them so much.”
More than 10 minutes later, “We’re going to be fine” is heard on the recording.
“We lost our engine taking off out of Gainesville,” pilot Thomas Rogers told WAGA-TV. “We tried to glide back, did everything by the book, but realized we weren’t going to make it back with how far out we were, so we came down on the road.”
The plane struck three cars. Additionally, Gainesville police Capt. Kevin Holbrook said the fuel tank fell onto one of the cars. Two people ended up in the hospital with minor injuries, he said. More details about the drivers involved or injured people were not available at time of publishing this article.
“The fact that they were able to land in the middle of hundreds of vehicles and only hit three of them, no power lines is very remarkable,” Holbrook said.
The road the plane landed on is one of the main arteries through northeast Georgia, making it really busy. “The fact that no one was seriously injured or killed is just astonishing,” he said. Per reports, the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are further investigating the incident.
Associated Press contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.
