Noise Leads Michigan Woman to Unbelievable Find in Driveway

A Cessna 172 stopped just inches from the front door of a home in Lowell after a student pilot had difficulty with a solo landing. (Screenshot via WOOD-TV)

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A Michigan woman was sitting in her living room around 5:45 p.m. Monday when she heard a loud noise that sounded like a car crash, but without the sound of squealing tires. She looked out her door and was stunned by what she saw in her driveway: A Cessna 172 plane stopped about five feet from the front door.

A student pilot was making his first solo landing when something went wrong, The Grand Rapids Press/MLive and WOOD-TV report. He was aiming for the Lowell City Airport, but fell short, narrowly missing Suzanne Fedewa’s home in Lowell and a nearby gas station.

“I heard a weird crunching noise that I thought maybe it was a car accident out on the street, except I didn’t hear any tires squealing or anything,” Fedewa said. “I looked out my front door and there was a plane crashed in my driveway.”

The scene left Fedewa so shaken she could barely manipulate her phone to call 911. “I was panicking. I could not get my phone to work. That shows how scared I was,” Fedewa said.

A student pilot who has been training since April 2014, the 40-year-old Grand Rapids man was attempting a solo landing. He recalled not feeling well as he attempted the landing and was trying to readjust when he hit the treetops in Fedewa’s yard. He was bleeding from two cuts on his face, but was not seriously injured. He was taken to a nearby hospital for observation, but authorities said in a news release that his injuries were not life-threatening.

A Kent County deputy called the landing “miraculous.” Other than some damage to treetops sheared in the emergency landing, there was no property damage. Fedewa said she could smell fuel, and considers herself lucky fire didn’t erupt.

“I was so shaken up ’cause I realized … how close it was to my house and, you know, the fact that that plane could catch fire, so it was scary,” Fedewa said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. The homeowners said they were told the earliest the plane will be removed is Tuesday.

The plane is a complete loss, Lowell Airport Manager Casey Brown said.

Brown said the 1960s-era Cessna was engineered to take the hit. “It did its job as far as I can see,” Brown said. “The pilot is very, very fortunate.”

• Read More at MLive.com

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