A pilot safely landed his stalled plane in a Port Coquitlam, B.C., field Tuesday afternoon, but not before some heart-pounding moments.
Dave Deno was about 10 minutes into his flight from Pitt Meadows to Squamish when the engine in his Cessna-150 began to stall.
He didn't have enough power to return to Pitt Meadows and put out a mayday call.
Turned out, CTV aviation analyst Mark Miller was en route to Pemberton in his own plane and was about 1,000 feet above Deno when he heard the emergency call.
Deno's plane is not equipped with a transponder, so tower crews didn't know exactly where he was.
Deno asked Miller where he could land his plane.
Miller suggested a nearby soccer field.
Deno initially hesitated.
"It looked tiny from up there," he recalled later in a live interview on CTV News at Six.
But he went ahead and lined up his plane for the field.
As he approached the field, Deno was worried he might slam into buildings or fences.
That didn't happen, but he did clip some trees as he made his approach.
Then, moments before touching down, he noticed a girl in a white jacket standing in his path.
"She was oblivious at that point," Deno said. "I'm going to have to open the door and yell at her because I don't have a horn to honk."
But she managed to run out of the way.
The plane landed, skidded sideways on the grass, and came to a stop. Deno was not hurt.
The landing was "picture perfect," Miller said.
Deno, who has been flying for 20 years, said he was just thankful no one was hurt.
"Nobody wants to go through this, that's for sure," he said.
