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Small plane crashes into car after overshooting runway during emergency landing

A small plane overshot the runway while trying to land at a Texas airport and struck a car that was driving along a nearby road (McKinney Fire Department/AP)
A small plane overshot the runway while trying to land at a Texas airport and struck a car that was driving along a nearby road (McKinney Fire Department/AP)

A small plane overshot the runway while landing at an airport in Texas airport over the weekend and struck a car driving along a nearby road, injuring one person, authorities said.

Video showed the propeller plane smash through a fence during an emergency landing in the Dallas suburb of McKinney on Saturday.

It then bounced and skidded on to the road, losing a wheel and colliding with a silver saloon car that was driving perpendicular to the single-engine plane’s path.

Jack Schneider, a bystander who recorded footage of the crash on his phone, told WFAA-TV: “I saw the airplane coming down the runway quickly… I knew that he wasn’t going to have time to stop.

“It was clearly going too fast, the tyres were smoking.”

Following the crash, medics evaluated both people in the plane and took the car’s driver to hospital with minor injuries, according to a statement from the McKinney Fire Department.

The flight originated in Midland, a Texas oilpatch city 330 miles (531km) west of Dallas, and had been attempting an emergency landing at the Aero Country Airport, the fire department said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.