Pilot walks away after emergency plane landing in St. Petersburg

A small plane made an emergency landing in St. Petersburg at the 2000 block of Tyrone Blvd.

Lt. Joel Granata of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue says the plane landed near Barnes and Noble around 6:43 p.m. Thursday.

According to Granata, the pilot lost power in the plane and had complete engine failure.

The pilot was heading back to the airport from Madeira Beach after flying a banner for three hours when his engine failed and he declared an emergency. The pilot then took caution and landed the plane near the Tyrone Square Mall.

The plane was flying a banner for Advertising Air Force out of Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg and is registered to Aerial Banners out of Pembroke Pines.

Granata says the plane did hit a car on its way down, which caused minor damage.

The plane also has damage on its left wing from clipping a tree to avoid hitting another car while landing, but otherwise is completely intact.

The 25-year-old pilot was able to walk away from the accident with no injuries. His name is not being released at this time.

No one else was injured in the incident.

Witness Bo Wilkerson said he saw the plane flying a banner over a neighborhood when the engine stalled and the pilot took a lefthand turn, probably trying to head back toward an airport.

Another witness, Dana Ives, said he was leaving the area after shoe shopping with his family when he looked up and saw the plane heading toward him.

"There was a plane coming in, and it dropped its banner, and I just looked at my wife and was like, 'Oh my God, he's in trouble,'" he said.

Ives said he believes the pilot did the right thing.

"I shook the man's hand and told him he did a phenomenal job, because he really, really did," he said. "He did a beautiful job of avoiding the cars and power lines and lining up that landing."

No fuel leakage was reported in the accident.

Traffic was shut down on Tyrone Blvd. at 66th Street and also at 38th Avenue for several hours.  Progress Energy also shut off power in the surrounding areas for safety reasons.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the emergency landing.