A JAMAICAN pilot is being praised by Florida authorities for his skilful landing of a light plane on a Florida road on Monday, after the aircraft developed mechanical problems.
His action possibly saved the lives of many below, police said.
Khareem Madden, a 20-year-old flight instructor-pilot for Pelican Airways, a flight training school based at North Perry Airport, Pembroke Pines, was on a training exercise with his student, 21-year old John Hannah, when the plane developed mechanical problems.
Mrs. Wendy Madden, Khareem's mother, told The Gleaner yesterday that the report she received was that while her son and his student were flying over the populated area of Miramar, South Florida, the plane engine's oil pressure began to fall, smoke filled the cockpit and the engine failed.
Khareem, a past student of Jamaica College, who left the island two years ago after receiving his private pilot's licence from Wings Jamaica Ltd., Tinson Pen, Kingston, took control of the 1995 Katana DA20 and managed to land it in a road-widening construction area on the shoulder of a nearby road.
Mrs. Madden, who lives in Kingston, said a friend told her about seeing the incident on the 5 o'clock news on a Florida-based cable station, about three hours later.
She said that when she became aware of her son's narrow escape, she was relieved to hear that he was all right as she did not get a chance to speak to him until much later.
Khareem, who received his commercial pilot's licence from Pelican Airways before recently being taken on as a flight-instructor, has been credited for his safe and skilful handling of the incident.
Miramar Police spokesman Bill Robertson said Khareem did an excellent job of getting the plane down "underneath those wires and landing safely".
