[imagesource: YouTube / Vincent Fraser]

Vince Fraser was flying his single-engine plane with his father-in-law over a dense forest on July 3 when the engine suddenly gave way.

The novice 31-year-old pilot tried restarting the engine three times, but each time it shut down and eventually turned off completely.

With less than 100 hours of flight time to his name, making him essentially an inexperienced pilot, it must have been terrifying to have found himself in a life-and-death situation.

“It’s windmilling – the prop is going but we’re not getting any power,” Fraser said per Fox8 before looking at his father-and-law, telling him he loves him, and apologising for putting him in danger.

From that point, Fraser realised it was his commitment that would carry them to safety: “Let’s see what’s going to happen. Let’s do this the best we can.”

Puttering over the forested area in the southern Appalachian mountains in Swain County, North Carolina, Fraser remained calm and went through a checklist of steps to get the engine back up and running.

With fading hope, he finally noticed a bridge in the distance. But the bridge was too narrow and short and full of people – no good for his emergency landing:

“It would just be a bad outcome,” he said. “I can almost guarantee you … a horrible outcome.”

His next port of call was ditching the plane in the water where the bridge was, but then:

“I’m going for the river. I’m lining up perfectly for the river, and I look to my left, and there’s Highway 19. You couldn’t see it before because of all the valleys and the mountains and the trees, but it just appears,” he said.

He says the plane had just enough elevation to land on the road.

“Now we’re headed to Highway 19. I see powerlines. I see cars, curves, trees, hills. I have no other option. This is the only and best option for us right now,” he said.

The video footage (captured with a GoPro camera and shared with WSPA) shows this moment, with Fraser pointing the plane’s nose down to pick up speed as he races under the power lines towards the cars on the highway:

The problem?

A mechanic later discovered the cause of the engine failure was a fuel issue with one of the two tanks in the wings. Only one was supplying the engine — he fuel from the other tank appeared to be clogged and would not let fuel pass through.

Authorities arrived on the scene within minutes, per HuffPost, with the sheriff’s office saying that the pilot did an outstanding job.

So many truly catastrophic things could have happened, but not a single person was injured throughout the ordeal. As “traumatic” as Fraser said the incident was, one good thing is that it made him and his father-in-law a lot closer.

The pair managed to fly the plane off the mountain three days later, returning home in one piece:

That’s sure to add a wealth of experience to Fraser’s flying repertoire, too.

[sources:huffpost&fox8]