Pilots Honored For Stunning Landing

(ROSELAND, Ind.) -- Two pilots who safely landed their ailing aircraft on a four-lane highway been given ceremonial keys to Roseland, a small northern Indiana town near South Bend.

Last December, about 10 minutes after they left South Bend Regional Airport for White Plains, N.Y., their single-engine craft lost power at 6,000 feet. They desperately looked for a place to land and finally brought the plane down on Indiana 933, about 5 miles from the airport in the middle of a commercial area lined with fast-food restaurants, gasoline stations and motels.

"We just did what we had to do. Luckily, the traffic light turned red at the right time for us and opened up a little spot on the road so we could land, and we took advantage of it," said Craig Miers, who joined co-pilot Sven Slattberg at a ceremony in their honor on Thursday.

Filled with an estimated 400 gallons of jet fuel, the plane barreled down the busy highway at 80 mph. A utility pole sheared off a portion of the right wing, spilling 200 gallons of fuel on the road and cutting power to about 600 Indiana Michigan Power customers in Roseland and around the nearby University of Notre Dame campus.

The plane came to a halt about a quarter-mile down the highway, in front of a pizza restaurant. Miers, 26, of Windham, N.H., and Slattberg, 32, of Southbury, Conn., and their three passengers were not injured.

Both pilots resumed flying the day after the Dec. 14 crash. They said the Federal Aviation Administration still has not determined a cause for the engine failure in their Pilatus PC 12/45 plane.

Miers and Slattberg plan to return to South Bend on May 2, when they will be honored by the St. Joseph County Red Cross as "Citizen Heroes."

"I don't think either one of us feels like we are heroes," Miers said. "We're very (grateful) that everyone in the community feels the way they do."

(Copyright 2005 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)