Next time you fret about doing poorly on an exam, rest assured that at least you (probably) haven’t had a test end with an impromptu plane crash on a golf course.
Yesterday morning, a pilot’s licence renewal exam came to an abrupt halt when the plane ran into mechanical problems, requiring the quick-thinking examiner to take over and make an emergency landing in a copse of trees at the Garden Farm Golf Centre in Ma On Shan.
Looks like the candidate didn’t exactly pass with flying colours… to no fault of his own, of course.
Miraculously, both the pilot, surnamed Ho, and the examiner, surnamed Yan, walked away from the hair-rising ride with only minor injuries. Thanks to Yan’s quick thinking, no one else was injured.
According to Sky Post, Ho and Yan noticed mechanical problems with the aircraft shortly after taking off from Shek Kong Airfield in Yuen Long at 11am. Yan immediately called the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) to say he’d be making an emergency landing.
Yan told reporters that he originally considered landing near Tseng Tau Tsuen village, but worried that there were too many homes and roads in the vicinity and opted for the nearby golf course instead.
After the crash, an ambulance, 35 fire engines, and 132 firefighters were sent to the scene. The plane, a Cessa 152 made in the US, was reported to be unsalvageable. The CAD, which owns the aircraft, has launched a task force to investigate what happened.
Screenshot: RTHK via Facebook
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