Somebody ground this geezer!
For the second time in about a week, an elderly Long Island pilot landed his ultralight plane on Sunrise Highway in Suffolk County after experiencing “engine trouble,” authorities said.
Aging aviator Frank Fierro, 75, took off in his single-engine Challenger but had to put the plane down near exit 62 on the eastbound side of the busy roadway about 12:50 p.m., shortly after taking off from Lufker/Spadaro airport in East Moriches.
“My wife is going to kill me,” the doddering Fierro told WCBS TV.
The gray-haired flyboy also had landed on the highway’s median strip on July 10 near Exit 61 after experiencing engine trouble.
This was the first time he’d flown the plane since, believing it was shipshape.
He said the engine sounded fine at takeoff but soon started sputtering — and then there was nothing but silence.
“That’s the biggest fear,” Fierro told the station, adding that his main concern was landing safely without anyone on the ground getting hurt. “Hoping to land on median, had to avoid a truck. I swung to right and left — one of my better landings,” he boasted.
“Someone’s looking out for me,” the mustachioed Fierro, of Lake Ronkonkoma, told Newsday at the scene.
People in the cars that had slowed down for him called Suffolk cops, who later had the plane towed back to the airport. Like the last time, there were no injuries.
The nutty navigator is actually a seasoned pilot who said he first got his wings in 1956 and had worked for the former Pan Am airline before it went out of business in 1991.
He later worked as a flight instructor.
His daughter, Lisa Abbate, told The Post she was just happy no one was hurt.
“He’s fine and everything is OK. I guess it’s just something that happens if you’re a pilot,” she said.
Eight days before Friday’s emergency landing, Fierro had taken off from the same airport about 1:30 p.m., and his engine went on the blink just minutes later.
He said then he tried to turn back and land at the airport but realized he was not going to make it.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating both incidents.