22-year-old pilot makes emergency landing on downtown street

A 22-year-old Civil Air Patrol pilot made an emergency landing on a street in a Houston, Texas, suburb on Tuesday night, avoiding disaster, although she hit power lines, had to dodge a car and lost a wing, ABC News reported.

When the single-engine Cessna 172P being flown by Sarah Chantal Rovner, a Second Lt. in the Thunderbird Composite Squadron in Houston, lost power about six miles from Lone Star Executive Airport, Rovner asked a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller to help her land in downtown Conroe, Texas, KTRK TV in Houston reported.

According to ABC News:

The plane hit a power line during the landing, and knocked down a sign while turning onto a side street. Rovner lost a wing while avoiding an oncoming car, KTRK reports.

"As you can see, all she did was run into this pole," witness Jennifer Freeman, who works at the car dealership in front of which the Cessna came to a stop, told KTRK. "It could have been much worse. She could have hurt herself, she could have hurt someone else, we could have had more damage.”

Rovner has been a certified FAA pilot for about seven months and has more than 100 flight hours, Ted Tessitore, commander of the CAP 7-6 Air Cavalry Squadron, told the Courier of Montgomery County.

"Landing on a public roadway is certainly not optimal," Col. Brooks Cima, Texas Wing commander, told the Courier of Montgomery County. "But the pilot surveyed the situation and determined that the road was the best and safest choice for herself and the residents of the area given the local terrain and darkness of night."