Pilot stops traffic to land on busy road

BEIRUT (Reuters) - When a small plane made an emergency landing on a busy Beirut highway the pilot had the presence of mind to first stick his head out of the window and yell at the traffic to stop, witnesses say.


There were no injuries and no visible damage to the plane, which landed on a road on the southern edge of the Lebanese capital. Soldiers sealed off the area.


Airport officials said the Cessna 172 was on a training flight when it developed mechanical problems.


"I heard my neighbours shouting and came out to look," said Mohammad Matariya, who lives nearby.


"I saw the plane starting to come down, then I saw the pilot put his head out of the window and tell a boy on a motorbike: 'Stop the traffic, I have to land!'"


"The pilot was great, really brave," another witness Ahmad Abu Samir said. "He came down so slowly, very calmly. It could have been so much worse."