This Friday afternoon, when Christophe sees a plane in the middle of the road, he first thought he had hallucinated.
“I was far away, but still.
At the time, I did not believe it.
»It was around 3 pm when a tourist plane which was flying over the Valois (Oise) was in difficulty and had to land urgently in the middle of the D 25, a few hundred meters from the village of Thury-en -Valois, near Betz.
The experienced pilot had no other choice and managed to land safely in the middle of the road.
"He was lucky, at that time, there are not many cars driving on this road", comments a resident of the village.
The Cessna F 152, a light two-seater aircraft, had just taken off from Meaux aerodrome (Seine-et-Marne) before using the D 25 as a landing strip.
Memories of the Piper PA-46 crash in June 2000
The air transport gendarmerie (BGTA) brigade of Beauvais, as well as that of Crépy-en-Valois, were engaged to secure the premises.
“Fortunately, no one was driving on this road and there were no injuries.
The BGTA is in charge of the investigation.
It can be an engine failure like a human error, it will be necessary to determine it, one indicates to the brigade of Crépy.
This will then report back to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
It will thus be able to issue an opinion "to know if it is possible to re-take off the plane in the field or if it must be dismantled and transported by road".
Read alsoSeine-et-Marne: a tourist plane crashes, killing four
The two-seater was quickly parked on a relief path in the middle of the field to be then stored with a farmer in the area who has enough room to accommodate it. Mechanics from the Meaux flying club will go there next week to make a technical evaluation of the machine.
The news quickly spread around this village of less than 500 souls. “It's quiet here, so information flows quickly, especially one like this. I am happy that nothing serious has happened, blows the secretary of the town hall of Thury-en-Valois. I remember, more than 20 years ago, a plane crashed on the road also between Mareuil-la-Motte and Thury. There, it was really dramatic. It was about the crash of the Piper PA-46 which occurred in June 2000. The six victims, all members of the same company in Germany, came from Jersey to rally Allendorf, in their country.
