Reported By Evrod Cassimy
POLK COUNTY -- The Sun 'n Fun Fly-In started Tuesday and already there were some tense moments in the sky for a pilot headed to the event.
The pilot, Kyle Davis, 22, and his passenger, Joe Surowiec, were flying from Winter Haven to Lakeland Sunday when they experienced engine failure.
Realizing the engine wouldn't cooperate, Davis was able to land the homemade plane safely on Havendale Boulevard.
"The options for me were land on the road or land on the lake," Davis said.
News 13 spoke to Eric Norber, a local aviation expert, who explained Davis performed well given the circumstance.
Norber told News 13 that statistically a plane's engine failure is rare, let alone catching one on camera.
Davis is a part-time flight instructor with 1,300 hours in the skies. His own flight instructor, John Amundsen, calls his roadway landing, incredible.
"Watching that video, he was just awesome," Amundsen said. "I just hope, you know, if I ever have a situation like that, I can be as cool as Kyle was."
Norber said some of the things that could have gone wrong are lack of fuel, fuel contamination and or some sort of engine malfunction.
He also said that many pilots go their whole lives practicing for this type of situation and never experience one.
Both men declined on scene medical care. The plane was not damaged either.
Meanwhile, Sunday's incident didn't scare Davis away from the skies. He plans to fly his own plane to the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In later this week.
As for finding out what caused the engine failure, Norber said it could be months before the FAA or the NTSB issues a final report on exactly what happened.
Information from Central Florida News 13's Bright House Networks affiliate Bay News 9 was used in this report.
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