DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A twin-engine plane in distress with two people on board landed on its belly at Daytona Beach International Airport shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, officials said.
The plane landed without incident despite issues that prevented its landing gear from fully extending.
The pilot of the Piper Aztec aircraft knew there was an issue with the landing gear, so he or she flew circles around the airport for about 90 minutes to burn off fuel.
Sparks flew when the plane finally did land, but the two people on board were able to get out of the aircraft unharmed once it landed.
Officials have not said what caused the issue with the landing gear. Commercial operations at the airport were not interrupted during the incident.
It was a tense moment not only for the pilot and the co-pilot, but for those watching on the ground below.
"They shut us down. Nobody could leave the ramp, nobody could come back into the airport," said Ivan Grau, chief flight instructor at Embry Riddle University.
Grau decided to take his class of 35 student pilots outside to watch the plane land.
"How often do students get to see a real emergency and learn from that emergency?" Grau asked.
"We noticed the airplane was flying really high, then we saw they turned the engines off," he said.
Grau said this maneuver is tricky if a pilot doesn't have enough experience.
"What could happen in a situation like that is if you shut down the engines and you're short of the runway, now you have a crash. If you shut down the engines when you know you're going to make the runway for sure, and then you glide in there, you land successfully and walk away," he said.
It was a close call for the pilot as Grau's students watched the plane's every move.
"They were all concerned," he said.
Fortunately, the plane landed safely.
"Everybody around here started clapping once the airplane came to a full stop," Grau said.
Both men onboard immediately jumped out of the plane and ran to safety.
"We saw them running away. We couldn't explain, we didn't know if it was a fire or not. They ran away from there just because the possibility of a fire," Grau said.
Grau added that the pilot did an excellent job handling a stressful situation and said class learned a thing or two about flying.
"They got a kick out of it and you learn a lot," he said.
The plane is registered to Ace Tomato Company out of Daytona Beach. News 6 asked if they had any safety concerns about their planes, but the owner declined to comment.