The skies were dark.
On the ground, hundreds of motorists filled Interstate 95 during the late evening rush on Monday, Dec. 8.
Then suddenly it happened, callers lit up the Brevard County Sheriff’s dispatch to report seeing a Beechcraft 55 airplane drop from the skies.
“A plane just landed on the highway…he landed into a white small car. I saw him coming down,” a woman told a dispatcher.
“It was pretty scary,” she said.
The calls continued to mount for several minutes as dispatchers alerted police and firefighters to the southbound lanes of the interstate. First responders arrived at the scene and treated a motorist who was in the Camry. Both the pilot and passenger in the plane were unharmed.
The incident itself would later capture international attention as stunning dashcam video began turning up. The 9-11 calls also capture the frantic moments that followed.
“We got help on the way, ok,” the dispatcher replied to another motorist calling into to report what he just saw.
The crash happened about 5:45 p.m. Dec. 8 in the southbound lanes of the interstate just south of State Road 520 near Cocoa, with the fixed-wing aircraft — based in Merritt Island — striking a 2023 Toyota Camry and coming to a rest partially atop a concrete barrier. The motorist, a 57-year-old Melbourne woman, suffered minor injuries in her car.
The pilot, a 27-year-old Orlando man, and his 27-year-old male passenger from Temple Terrace, whose names were not released, were not injured in the crash. The plane had reported engine problems shortly before the aircraft descended on the interstate. The incident is being investigated by federal authorities.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X: @JDGallop.

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