Landing on the highway of life

Although it wasn't in his flight plan, a North Carolina pilot found it most prudent to land his airplane on a four-lane highway. My life is like that. Plan your flight and fly your plan is what flight instructors instruct their students. I have been told by others and have told myself exactly where the milestones in my life should be for a good pilot and what I should be doing. I try to stick to "my plan". Good pilots land at the airport. Yet, unexpected things happen.

Life throws us curves and sometimes very bad ones, such as an engine blowing up. I find it interesting that at that exact moment of crisis, it was not the air controller saving the pilot or even telling the pilot what to do but rather the pilot had to think fast for himself. He was the captain of his ship and no one else, despite all the advisors that were available on the other side of his radio. In the end, the pilot had to rely on his training, his instinct, his gut to tell him what to do.

The pilot searched for the best spot to land, an unbusy part of a four lane highway and then he landed that sucker. He put his plane down, coasted to the side of the highway, and walked away.

They say a successful landing is one that you can walk away from.