An Air Force OA-1K Skyraider II had a close-call with cars on an Oklahoma highway this week. The crew – a civilian contractor and Air Force active duty member – pulled off an emergency landing without injuries while flying a training mission with the Oklahoma Air National Guard.
Matthew Topchian was just driving like any other day, when the plane suddenly appeared, flying eye-level almost directly at him. His dashcam captured it.
Mayday declared just 5 minutes after taking off
The plane, operating under call sign Zorro75, narrowly missed Topchian and other cars, coming to a stop in a field instead. The crew had just took-off from KOKC. On departure the crew climbed uneventfully to 3,500 ft., but quickly lost speed and altitude. They declared “mayday” just 5 minutes into flight.
The Skyraider is assigned to the 492d Special Operations Wing, but was operating with the 137th Special Ops Wing out of Will Rogers Air National Guard Base.
AvGeek Redhome Aviation was on-scene monitoring chatter and documenting. Visit their Facebook page for more photos and video.
“They struck the curb with one of the tires, went across a small, uneven field, across a road, striking a stop sign and utility pole, before spinning to the left and coming to the stop in a field,” says Redhome in an post on Facebook. “The aircraft is leaning on its right wing, with the stop sign still on the leading edge of the left wing.”
The crew were seen walking around the wreckage. Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, and nobody on the ground was hurt either. Kudos to them and the first responders.
Air Force Special Operations Command just accepted their first missionized OA-1K Skyraider II earlier this year, designed for close air support, precision strike, and armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Read more about it HERE.
The cause is under investigation.
