S.C. flight instructor called a hero after safe landing on interstate
WINNSBORO, S.C. (WIS) - A flight instructor is now a hero after saving the life of her student on Thursday night.
Columbia native Nicole Smith and her aviation student are doing fine following their emergency landing on Interstate 77 in Fairfield County near Exit 34.
Smith has been a flight instructor with S&S Aviation since 2020.
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She said she was helping one of her students prepare for a flight test they were supposed to have on Friday.
Smith said they took off at around 6 p.m. Thursday and were about 40 minutes into the flight when there was a mechanical failure.
At first, she and her student heard some clicking noises in flight while going over flight procedures.
Next they both noticed the plane started to shake once, then twice.
That made Smith realize she needed to turn the plane around and look for a safe place to land.
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She landed the plane on the median near Mile Marker 34, saving both her student’s life and her own.
“There was a field that was east of I-77 and that was actually my first intent to go there,” Smith said. “But, we were too high, and the maneuver that I needed to do in order to make the field, I would’ve ran out of field. And so, I had to the next best solution, which would’ve been I-77.”
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