Student pilot's dead engine leads to road test

Narrowly dodging power lines, Joseph Carey, 17, glides to a landing on a busy Clearwater road.

[Times photo: Jill Sagers] Joseph Carey talks with Clearwater police officers after his plane stopped in a driveway on McMullen-Booth Road.

By JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Ending his first solo distance flight, 17-year-old Joseph Carey was just a few miles from success Tuesday when his Cessna 152 began stalling.

The control tower at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport ordered him to Clearwater Executive Airpark, which was closer.

Carey turned west, but the engine died. He knew he couldn't make the airpark, so he aimed for another landing strip: a stretch of McMullen-Booth Road that averages 70,000 vehicles a day.

Dodging power lines and buildings, Carey took the plane into a glide. While northbound traffic was stopped for a red light, southbound motorists pulled over at the sight of the oncoming plane.

"I thought some guy was having a heart attack or something like that," said Curtis Osborn, 16, of Palm Harbor, a passenger in a car. "The engine wasn't running, and the propeller wasn't turning. I thought he was going to hit those power lines."

The Cessna touched down in the southbound lanes across from Ruth Eckerd Hall, taxied south on the road for about 500 yards and veered across the median. The plane crossed the northbound lanes and stopped on the east side of the road in a driveway at 421 McMullen-Booth Road.

"I was just trying to find a place to land," Carey said. "I was up about 800 feet when the engine trouble started. It kept stalling out and eventually just quit."

Clearwater police and rescue squads converged on the area to find the plane parked. No one was injured, and the plane sustained only minor damage to the tip of its left wing, which clipped an oleander in the median.

Carey, of 6019 Mornay Drive in Tampa, said he began taking flying lessons at 15. Carey, a student at Leto High School who wants to be a Marine Corps pilot, is in the final stages of training for a private pilot's license.

His solo distance flight, one of the last training steps, started at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. He went north to Ocala, west to Crystal River and then south to return to the airport.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were investigating what caused the plane's engine to quit, but they declined to comment late Tuesday.

It was unclear how the emergency landing might affect Carey's bid for a pilot's license.

Rick Emshoff, who owns the Cessna and rented it to Carey, said he suspects Carey ran out of gas. The plane was in good working condition, he said.

"I think he got in the plane, looked at the fuel gauge, thought he had gas and left," Emshoff said. "He was only in the air about 21/2 hours, and the plane carries 71/2 hours of fuel. The main thing is that he's not hurt."

David Hall said the plane landed about 20 feet in front of his car.

"He went over the power lines by about an inch," said Hall, 16, of Clearwater, who was southbound on McMullen-Booth. "It was pretty neat. I never thought I'd see a plane land in front of my car."

Clutching his flight logbook after his landing, Carey seemed dazed and slightly puzzled as he answered questions. He looked at the plane, the network of power lines and at the traffic passing on McMullen-Booth.

"I just missed the power lines," Carey said. "In terms of what happened, I think I did the best I could have done.

"I'm convinced I'm a pretty good pilot."

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